Viticultural zoning in D.O.C. Ribeiro (Galicia, NW Spain)

Global trends in the wine industry are changing, which is caused by consumer demands for aroma and flavour innovation. Producers in Australia, the sixth globally ranked wine producing country, are embracing this trend by exploring non-conventional yeast species to improve sensory qualities and achieve fermentation advantages.

Making high quality but affordable Pinot noir (PN) wine is challenging in most terroirs and New Zealand’s (NZ) situation is no exception. To increase the probability of making highly typical PN wines producers choose to grow grapes in cool climates on lower fertility soils while adopting labour intensive practices. Stringent yield targets and higher input costs necessarily mean that PN wine cost is high, and profitability lower, in line-priced varietal wine ranges. To understand the reasons why higher yielding vines are perceived to produce wines of lower quality we have undertaken an extensive study of PN in NZ. Since 2018, we established a network of twelve trial sites in three NZ regions to find individual vines that produced acceptable commercial yields (above 2.5kg per vine) and wines of composition comparable to “Icon” labels. Approximately 20% of 660 grape lots (N = 135) were selected from within a narrow juice Total Soluble Solids (TSS) range and made into single vine wines under controlled conditions. Principal Component Analysis of the vine, berry, juice and wine parameters from three vintages found grape berry mass to be most effective clustering variable. As berry mass category decreased there was a systematic increase in the probability of higher berry red colour and total phenolics with a parallel increase in wine phenolics, changed aroma fraction and decreased juice amino acids. The influence of berry size on wine composition would appear stronger than the individual effects of vintage, region, vineyard or vine yield. Our observations support the hypothesis that it is possible to produce PN wines that fall within an “Icon” benchmark composition range at yields above 2.5kg per vine provided that the Leaf Area:Fruit Weight ratio is above 12cm2 per g, mean berry mass is below 1.2g and juice TSS is above 22°Brix.

Nous savons tous très bien qu’on a assisté au cours de ces dix dernières années à une éclosion soudaine de recherches sur le zonage viti-vinicole qui, à partir par exemple du modèle du concept de “terroir”, se sont de plus en plus enrichies en passant aux “Unités ou Systèmes de Transformation” (UTTE) et “Valorisation” (UTCE) pour terminer avec les “Systèmes productifs globaux du Territoire” (UTB) comprenant en filière les aspects existentiels (UTBES), sociaux (UTBSO) et économiques (UTBEC) hypothisés dans le “GRANDE ZONAZIONE: Grand zonage” (MORLAT R., 1996, CARBONNEAU A., 1996, TOUZARD J.M. 1998, CARBONNEAU A., CARGNELLO G., 1996, 1998, CARGNELLO G., 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, -MILOTIC A., CARGNELLO G., PERSURIC G., 1999, PERSURIC G., STAYER M., CARGNELLO G., 2000, MILOTIC A., OPLANIC M., CARGNELLO G., PERSURIC G., 2000).

Wine cellars are affected by seasonally fluctuating workloads and face challenges especially in the harvest period connected to the required timely processing of the harvested grapes.

Red grapes contain significant amounts of phenolic compounds, known to contribute to wine quality and to provide important health benefits. Berry skin phenolics can be elicited by plant hormones. The aim of this work was to increase the content of anthocyanins and trans-resveratrol in five red varieties cultured in Argentina: Malbec (M), Bonarda (B), Syrah (S), Cabernet Sauvignon (CS), and Pinot Noir (PN), in two different growing regions: Santa Rosa (SR) and Valle de Uco (VU), by applying a post-veraison hormonal treatment with abscisic acid (ABA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA).