Terroir 2004 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Méthodologie pour application et valorisation des études de terroir dans les caves cooperatives des Côtes du Rhône (France)

Méthodologie pour application et valorisation des études de terroir dans les caves cooperatives des Côtes du Rhône (France)

Abstract

[English version below]

L’appellation d’origine contrôlée “Côtes du Rhône” se caractérise par une très forte implantation du mouvement coopératif. Afin de mieux exploiter le potentiel qualitatif de leurs terroirs, plusieurs coopératives élaborent des “cuvées terroir”, résultat des sélections de vendanges provenant de différents secteurs.
Le travail répond à la demande des professionnels pour approfondir la connaissance de la diversité de leurs terroirs, pour évaluer leur incidence sur la matière première et pour établir une démarche permettant de mieux gérer les sélections parcellaires.
La méthodologie proposée se déroule en trois étapes :
I. Caractérisation de la diversité des terroirs au sein d’une cave coopérative : cartographie des sols.
II. Evaluation du fonctionnement, essentiellement hydrique, des principaux sols et de leur incidence sur le comportement de la vigne et sur la composition du raisin. L’objectif est de dégager des indicateurs simples pour caractériser cette incidence.
III. Application pour les sélections “terroir” : ces outils sont testés ensuite pour la mise en place d’une sélection parcellaire au niveau de la cave.
Cette démarche a été appliquée sur différentes caves. A titre d’exemple, nous illustrerons cet article avec les résultats obtenus pour la cave de Rochefort du Gard.
La méthode présentée débute avec une étude de zonage. Elle se complète ensuite par une évaluation du potentiel de différentes unités de sol et, enfin, donne lieu à une application pratique pour améliorer la gestion des sélections de vendange dans un contexte professionnel bien précis, celui des caves coopératives.

Most of the “Côtes du Rhône” controlled appellation wine is produced by cooperative wineries. In order to make the best use of the qualitative potential of their “terroirs”, several cooperative wineries produce specific “cuvees terroir” with harvest selections from different districts.
This work is an answer to professionals’ needs to enhance the knowledge of their “terroirs” diversity, to evaluate their effects on grape berry composition and to work out a methodology to improve the management of harvest selections.
The proposed methodology is developed in 3 stages :
I. Characterisation of “terroirs” diversity of a cooperative winery area : maps of the soils.
II. Evaluation of the way the most important soils function, essentially for water and of the influence on vine behaviour and on grape berries composition. The aim is to look for simple tests explaining this influence.
III. Application to “terroir” harvest selections : the tests are then tried out to set up a harvest selection in the winery.
The methodology is applied to different cooperative wineries. In this paper we will show, as an example, the results from the Rochefort du Gard winery.
The proposed method starts off with a zoning study. It is then completed by an evaluation of potential quality of different kinds of soils and finally, it leads to practical application in order to enhance management of harvest selections in a quite precise professional context, which is that of cooperative wineries.

DOI:

Publication date: January 12, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2004

Type: Article

Authors

B. Rodriguez Lovelle (1); F. Fabre (2)

Syndicat Général des Vignerons des Côtes du Rhône
1) Institut Rhodanien, 2260 Rte. du Grès, 84100 Orange (France)
2) Maison des Vins, 6 rue des Trois Faucons, 84000 Avignon (France)

Contact the author

Keywords

Terroir, cartographie, méthodologie pratique, cave coopérative, propriétés du sol, disponibilité hydrique, qualité du raisin, sélection des vendanges
terroir, mapping, practical methodology, cooperative winery, soil properties, water availability, grape quality, harvest selection

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2004

Citation

Related articles…

Copper contamination in vineyard soils of Bordeaux: spatial risk assessment for the replanting of vines and crops

Copper (Cu) is widely and historically used in viticulture as a fungicide against mildew. Cu has a strong affinity for soil organic matter and accumulates in topsoil horizons. Thus, Cu may negatively affect soil organisms and plants, consequently reducing soil fertility and productivity. The Bordeaux vineyards have the largest vineyard surfaces (26%) within French controlled appellation and a great proportion of French wine production (around 5 million hl per year). Considering the local context of vineyard surfaces decreasing (vine uprooting) and possible new crop plantation, the issue of Cu potential toxicity rises. Therefore, the aims of this work are firstly to evaluate the Cu contamination in vineyard soils of Bordeaux, secondly to produce a risk assessment map for new vine or crop plantation. We used soil analyses from several local studies to build a database with 4496 soil horizon samples. The database was enhanced by means of pedotransfer functions in order to estimate the bioaccessible (EDTA-extractable) Cu in soils of samples without measurements. From this database, 1797 georeferenced samples with CuEDTA concentrations in the topsoil (0-50 cm depth) were used for kriging interpolation in order to produce the spatial distribution map of CuEDTA in vineyard soils. Then, the spatial distribution of Cu was crossed with vine uprooting surfaces and municipality boundaries. CuEDTAconcentrations ranged from 0.52 to 459 mg/kg and showed clear anomalies. Our results from spatial analysis showed that almost 50% of vineyard soil surfaces have CuEDTA concentrations higher than 30 mg/kg (moderate risk for new plantation) and 20% with concentrations higher than 50 mg/kg (high risk for new plantation). A decision-support map based on municipalities was realised to provide a simple tool to stakeholders concerned by land use management.

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,

Downscaling of remote sensing time series: thermal zone classification approach in Gironde region

In viticulture, the challenges of local climate modelling are multiple: taking into account the local environment, fine temporal and spatial scales, reliable time series of climate data, ease of implementation and reproducibility of the method. At the local scale, recent studies have demonstrated the contribution of spatialization methods for ground-based climate observation data considering topographic factors such as altitude, slope, aspect, and geographic coordinates (Le Roux et al, 2017; De Rességuier et al, 2020). However, these studies have shown questions in terms of the reproducibility and sustainability of this type of climate study. In this context, we evaluated the potential of MODIS thermal satellite images validated with ground-based climate data (Morin et al, 2020). Previous studies have been encouraging, but questions remain to be explored at the regional scale, particularly in the dynamics of the massive use of bioclimatic indices to classify the climate of wine regions. The results at the local scale were encouraging, but this approach was tested in the current study at the regional scale. Several objectives were set: 1) to evaluate the downscaling method for land surface temperature time series, 2) to identify regional thermal structure variations. We used weekly minimum and maximum surface temperature time series acquired by MODIS satellites at a spatial resolution of 1000 m and downscaled at 500 m using topographical variables. Two types of analyses were performed:

Influence of grapevine rootstock/scion combination on rhizosphere and root endophytic microbiomes

Soil is a reservoir of microorganisms playing important roles in biogeochemical cycles and interacting with plants whether in the rhizosphere or in the root endosphere. The composition of the microbial communities thus impacts the plant health. Rhizodeposits (such as sugar, organic and amino acids, secondary metabolites, dead root cells …) are released by the roots and influence the communities of rhizospheric microorganisms, acting as signaling compounds or carbon sources for microbes. The composition of root exudates varies depending on several factors including genotypes. As most of the cultivated grapevines worldwide are grafted plants, the aim of this study was to explore the influence of rootstock and scion genotypes on the microbial communities of the rhizosphere and the root endosphere. The work was conducted in the GreffAdapt plot (55 rootstocks x 5 scions), in which the 275 combinations have been planted into 3 blocks designed according to the soil resistivity. Samples of roots and rhizosphere of 10 scion x rootstock combinations were first collected in May among the blocks 2 and 3. The quantities of bacteria, fungi and archaea have been assessed in the rhizosphere by quantitative PCR, and by cultivable methods for bacteria and fungi. The communities of bacteria, fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was analyzed by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene, ITS and 28S rRNA gene, respectively. The level of mycorrhization was also evaluated using black ink coloration of newly formed roots harvested in October. The level of bacteria, fungi and archaea was dependent on rootstock and scion genotypes. A block effect was observed, suggesting that the soil characteristics strongly influenced the microorganisms from the rhizosphere and root endosphere. High-throughput sequencing of the different target genes showed different communities of bacteria, fungi and AMF associated with the scion x rootstock combinations. Finally, all the combinations were naturally mycorrhized. The root mycorrhization intensity was influenced by the rootstock genotype, but not by the scion one. Altogether, these results suggest that both rootstock and scion genotypes influence the rhizosphere and root endophytic microbiomes. It would be interesting to analyze the biochemical composition of the rhizodeposition of these genotypes for a better understanding of the processes involved in the modulation of these microbiomes. Moreover, crossing our data with the plant agronomic characteristics could provide insights into their roles on plant fitness.

Postveraison shoot trimming in Tannat and Merlot: preliminary results on yield components, plant balance and berry composition

There is currently a trend towards the production of wines with low alcohol content. To achieve this, grapes with low sugar content must be used. There are techniques at the vineyard level that can delay ripening and avoid excessive sugar accumulation without, a priori, affecting the final polyphenol content. Postveraison shoot trimming (PVST) is experimentally evaluated for these purposes, but its impact under Uruguayan climatic conditions with high interannual variability is not known. The aim of this work is to assess the PVST in Tannat and Merlot cultivars and their impact on yield components, plant balance and berry primary composition. In this study, two commercial vineyards of 10 years old Tannat and Merlot (grafted on SO4) at Canelones Department were selected. During the 2020-201 growing season, grapevines were submitted to PVST when grapes reached 15º Brix. In a randomized block, trimmed (T) and control (C) plants were evaluated with three repetitions each cultivar. Evaluation of the evolution of primary berry composition during ripening, measurement of yield components and plant balance were performed. For both cultivars, PVST did not affect yield components. Merlot reached 5.4 kg per plant and Tannat 7.1 kg, with not statistical significance between treatments. However, statistical differences were observed in terms of plant balance. In Merlot Ravaz Index reached a difference of 5.3 (12.0 in T and 6.7 in C) meanwhile Tannat reached 3.5 of statistical difference (13.7 in T and 10.2 in C). The tendency to imbalance for the treated plants had an impact on the final grape composition. Merlot grapes showed statistical difference in final total acidity (0.3 g of difference between treatments) while treatments impact final sugar content on Tannat grapes (10.0 g of difference between treatments). Further studies are needed to assess the impact of different canopy management techniques in our conditions.