The technical activity of the Consortium for the Protection of Gavi involves various projects, both in the vineyard and in the winery: from clonal selection to thematic maps of the area (sunset, slope, altimetry and exposure) from the regulation of sprayers to the study on native yeasts. The projects have a clear purpose: to improve vineyard management techniques while respecting environmental sustainability and biodiversity, and to update winemaking practices in the cellar while respecting tradition. The Consortium's activity is aimed above all in the protection of the image of Gavi Docg in Italy and abroad, through the monitoring of industry sites.

Online protection: the activity involves monitoring Italian and international sites, aimed at protecting the image of Gavi Docg in Italy and abroad.

The Consortium also carries out yearly supervisory activities on all Gavi D.O. through checks carried out by supervisory agents at the marketing stage in order to ascertain that the protected production meets the requirements set out in the production regulations. A number of bottles of Gavi Docg on sale both in the G.D.O. (supermarkets and Hard Discount) and in the HO.RE.CA. sector. (wine shops) all over Italy: the wines taken are subjected to chemical-physical analysis and administrative checks on the compliance of the labels with the state mark. In case of irregularities, a report is made to the ICQRF - Central Inspectorate for the protection of quality and fraud repression of agri-food products.

The topic is esca disease: not a single disease, but a series of pathogens that afflict the vine plant at different times and in different ways. They are in fact better defined in the plural as wood diseases and pose a serious threat as they affect increasingly young vines. The Consortium for the Protection of Gavi organized an in-depth focus that brought together leading national and international experts on this disease. The conference proceedings are available for free download.

For three consecutive mornings on April 19 - 20 - 21, 2017, exceptional weather conditions occurred. In some areas of Piedmont, minimum temperatures reached as low as -4°C, while the vegetative cycle of vines was about 10-15 days earlier than normal phenology, with shoots as long as 15-20 centimeters. It was a complex and articulated event with major destructive consequences. The damage was not only localized in the valley bottoms, but also along the hillsides and up to high elevations, affecting different exposures, young vines and old vines. The Consortium monitored random vineyards over two harvest years in order to analyze the impact of the phenomenon on vines and production.

The Sprayers Functional Regulation Project was developed by the Consortium for the Protection of Gavi in collaboration with the Cadir Lab in Quargnento (AL). It stems from the need to identify a standard and general guidelines to carry out targeted action of treatments in the vineyard while respecting the environment and beekeeping. It is "a practical sustainability project" to show winemakers what is happening in the vineyard by comparing single-row and alternate-row treatments, the use of the over-excavating spreader, and the influence of topping in distribution.
In addition, thanks to the participation of manufacturers, it is possible to see in action the company's Vma - model SV5 machine and the trailed machine/Tav series (Dragone) that is also used with anti-drift nozzles (Abbà).

In May, the first tests in the vineyard begin, through the placement of water-sensitive maps at different heights in the leaf wall of the treated row, but also in more distant ones such as on the ground to verify product drift.
The activity continues in the vineyard in June and July with Open Day in the field among the rows to then collect and process all the data.

Since the 2015 harvest, the Consortium has launched the Autochthonous Yeast Selection Project, in collaboration with the Italiana Biotecnologie - Enartis laboratory, to increase the viticultural value of Gavi Docg.
The project studied the yeasts present on the grapes, in organic and conventional vineyards, to select those that can best enhance the characteristics of Cortese. In 2015, clusters were taken in each vineyard of the project (9 total vineyards: 3 conventional and 6 organic vineyards) and delivered to the Enartis Laboratory, which is in charge of isolating and preserving yeast strains from fermenting musts, molecular and biological characterization of the isolated strains, oenological tests (fermentative power, production of volatile acidity, _SO2 and glycerol) and comparison with commercial dry yeasts.

For the 2016 vintage, two different strains of indigenous yeasts, labeled CTdG12 and CTdG07 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae from samples taken last year and prepared with the contribution of Enartis, were introduced for the first time and tested by some wineries in the Gavi Appellation. As soon as the wines are available, we will conduct a technical test and tasting to verify the compliance of these yeasts.