Terroir 2004 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Climate and mesoclimate zonification in the Miño valley (Galicia, NW Spain)

Climate and mesoclimate zonification in the Miño valley (Galicia, NW Spain)

Abstract

[English version below]

Galicia est une région située dans le Nord-Ouest de l’Espagne avec une longe tradition de culture de la vigne. A jour d’oui la vigne occupe en Galicia presque 28.500 ha, desquelles 8.100 correspondent aux 5 zones ayant droit à l’appellation DO (« Denominación de Origen ») équivalent aux AOC françaises. Les vignobles sont souvent localisés dans la partie moyenne et méridionale de la Vallée du Miño, bien que s’élaborent aussi vins de qualité dans les rivages atlantiques du sud-ouest et au val du Támega dans l’extrême sud-est. Le climat général est du type maritime tempéré avec d’influences océaniques que petit a petit sont remplacées pour des influences méditerranéennes et continentales, vers le sud et l’est de la région.
Le but de ce travail est évaluer les limites des DO galiciennes, en tenant conte l’évolution des techniques et indices de zonage climatique.
En préliminaire, les conditions climatiques ont été précisées d’un point de vue statistique (stations météo au sein des aires viticoles et stations limitrophes). Puis, plusieurs indices bioclimatiques proposées par la littérature vitivinicole ont été calcules. Le calcul a été opéré aussi sur les données apportées au cours des dernières 5 années pour le nouveau réseau de stations automatiques du Gouvernement régional.
L’élaboration et l’interprétation des résultats de l’analyse statistique ont permit de définir quatre zones agroclimatiques bien différentes au point de vue climatique. Ces résultats démontrent aussi que dans la DO Rías Baixas, il y a au moins deux zones avec conditions climatiques assez différentes. En outre, les données apportées par les nouvelles stations automatiques, on permit d’identifier quelques zones climatiques similaires -à l’échelle de mesoclimat- à l’intérieur des DO traditionnelles.

Galicia is a region in Northwest Spain and has a long viticulture heritage. Today about 28,500 hectares are dedicated to vine growing and, of these, 8.100 has are protected under 5 distinct denominations of origin. Most of these zones are situated in the southern and central part of the region in and around the river Miño valley. Some high quality wines are also produced on the southwest coast and in the river Támega valley. The climate of this area is mild, fresh maritime with strong influences from the Atlantic which gradually give way to Mediterranean and continental inland tendencies as one goes inland to the East.
The main aim of this article is to demonstrate the suitability of the classification of today’s Galician AOCs given the latest information on the field of Climatic Zoning.
For this purpose, standardized climate data provided by the Spanish and the Galician meteorological services have been utilized as well as data provided over the last five years by a new network of automatic weather posts that complete the previous network.
These data were used to calculate as series of climatic indices according to various methodologies. This information was later processed statistically to identify the most relevant factors in the differentiation of the vine growing areas.
Results confirmed the existence of four very clearly defined different viticulture climates. It was also shown that within the vine-growing zone of the Rías Baixas at least two sectors exist with quite distinct climatic conditions. Furthermore, the statistic processing of the information provided by the new automatic weather stations advanced research in climatic zoning permitting the identification of a series of typical mesoclimates that appear within the interior of the traditional viticulture zones.

DOI:

Publication date: January 12, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2004

Type: Article

Authors

D. Blanco, C., Alvarez, M.P., García, and J.M., Queijeiro

Vigo University, Plant Biology and Soil Science Department, Ourense Science Faculty, As Lagoas s/n 32004 Ourense, Spain

Contact the author

Keywords

Viticultural climatic characterization, viticultural zoning, mesoclimates, climatic indices

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2004

Citation

Related articles…

Exploring resilience and competitiveness of wine estates in Languedoc-Roussillon in the recent past: a multi-level perspective

The Languedoc-Roussillon wineries are facing a decline in wine yields particularly PGI yields due to many factors. Climate change is just ones, but is expected to increase in the future. There is also structurally a large heterogeneity of yield profiles among terroirs, varieties and strategies. This work investigates the link between yield, competitiveness and resilience to explore how resilient winegrowers have been in the recent past. To this end two approaches have been combined; (i) an accountancy database analysis at estate scale and (ii) municipality level competitiveness analysis. A new resilience indicator that characterizes the capacity of an estate to absorb yield variation is also defined. The FADN database between 2000 and 2018 of ex-Languedoc-Roussillon (France) and other data are used to analyse the current situation and the past evolution of competitiveness and resilience by type of estate (type of farm: PGI and/or PDO & type of commercialization: bulk and/or bottles). The net margin, which defines competitiveness, is not correlated to yield for all types but depends on the type of commercialization and the level of specialisation. The resilience indicator shows that the net margin of estates specialized in PGI is particularly sensitive to yield declines. We also show that price evolutions seem to compensate the effect of yield losses for the majority of types. Municipality scale analysis shows the links between local pedoclimate, yield, commercialization strategies and price. Overlapping a PDO with a PGI does not always increase a municipality’s PGI competitiveness. It is difficult to make links between causes and effects due to the complexity of the wine production system. Production diversification may be a solution. Resorting to the two level of analysis helps resolving the data gap that is necessary to explore the links between yield and economic performance of the wine estates in the long term.

Water deficit differentially impacts the performances and the accumulation of grape metabolites of new varieties tolerant to fungi

The use of resistant varieties is a long-term but promising solution to reduce chemical input in viticulture. Several important breeding programs in Europe and abroad are now releasing a range of new hybrids performing well regarding fungi susceptibility and producing good quality wines. Unfortunately, insufficient attention is paid by the breeders to the adaptation of these varieties to climatic changes, notably to the increased climatic demand and water deficit (WD). Thus, prior to the adoption of such varieties by the wine industry in Mediterranean regions, there is a need to consider their suitability to WD. This study aimed to characterize the different drought-strategies adopted by 6 new resistant varieties selected by INRAE in comparison to Syrah. To allow the assessment of long-term impacts of WD, field-grown vines were exposed to contrasted WD from 2018 to 2021 under a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. A gradient of WD was applied in the field and controlled through plant measurements at the single plant level. Grape development was non-destructively monitored to determine the arrest of berry phloem unloading. The impacts of WD on berry composition, including water, primary metabolites (sugars, organic acids), secondary metabolites (anthocyanins, thiols precursors) and main cations contents, were assessed at this specific stage. Results showed different varietal responses during the year and inter-annual acclimation in terms of plant water use efficiency, biomass accumulation, as well as yield components and berry composition. WD differentially reduced the accumulation of primary metabolites at plant and berry levels, but it little changed their concentrations in the fruits at the ripe stage. Moreover, WD differentially impacted the accumulation of secondary metabolites and major cations between the varieties. In the talk, we’ll present the main results regarding the WD impacts on fruit metabolites and enlarge the reflection about the practical assessment of the grapevine acclimation to WD.

Phenological characterization of a wide range of Vitis Vinifera varieties

In order to study the impact of climate change on Bordeaux grape varieties and to assess the adaptation capacities of candidates to the grape varieties of this wine region to the new climatic conditions, an experimental block design composed of 52 grape varieties was set up in 2009 at the INRAE Bordeaux Aquitaine center. Among the many parameters studied, the three main phenological stages of the vine (budburst, flowering and veraison) have been closely monitored since 2012. Observations for each year, stage and variety were carried out on four independent replicates. Precocity indices have been calculated from the data obtained over the 2012-2021 period (Barbeau et al. 1998). This work allowed to group the phenological behaviour of the grapevine varieties, not only based on the timing of the subsequent developmental stages, but also on the overall precocity of the cycle and the total length of the cycle between budburst and veraison. Results regarding the variability observed among the different grape varieties for these phenological stages are presented as heat maps.

Local adaptation tools to ensure the viticultural sustainability in a changing climate

[lwp_divi_breadcrumbs home_text="IVES" use_before_icon="on" before_icon="||divi||400" module_id="publication-ariane" _builder_version="4.19.4" _module_preset="default" module_text_align="center" module_font_size="16px" text_orientation="center"...

Influence of weather and climatic conditions on the viticultural production in Croatia

The research includes an analysis of the impact of weather conditions on phenological development of the vine and grape quality, through monitoring of four experimental cultivars (Chardonnay, Graševina, Merlot and Plavac mali) over two production years. In each experimental vineyard, which were evenly distributed throughout the regions of Slavonia and The Croatian Danube, Croatian Uplands,