Terroir 1996 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Tokaj zonation, traditions and future prospects

Tokaj zonation, traditions and future prospects

Abstract

  1. Les traditions
    La superficie actuelle de l’ensemble des vignobles est de 5.293 ha qui est repartie dans 27 communes (données officielles du Conseil National des Communes de montagnes). L’histoire du vignoble remonte aux années 1550. Le premier vin d’aszu a été élaboré en 1650. Les premières lois concernant la production ont été mises en vigueur en 1737. La première classification des vignobles a été effectuée en 1772.
  2. Les conditions écologiques
    Le climat de la région de Tokaj est continental avec une température moyenne de 10,5 oC et une pluviométrie de 550 mm par ans. Le microclimat spécial est conditionné par les coteaux du Sud en forme de V de la montagne de Zemplén. Ces reliefs protègent aussi les vignes contre les vents froids de l’Est. Les facteurs très importants sont encore les rivières aux pieds de la montagne, notamment la Tisza (la Theiss) et la Bodrog, qui assurent une partie de l’humidité pour la pourriture noble causée par le Botrytis cinerea. Les sols de la région sont composés de sols volcaniques et sédimenteux.
  3. Les produits
    A Tokaj on peut caractériser trois types des produits:
    • Les vins de cépage sont vinifiés avec les grappes saines.
    • Le szamorodni (mot d’origine polonaise: “comme il est né”) est obtenu à partir de grappes saines et botrytisées (grains d’aszu) récoltées et vinifiées ensemble. On peut en produire deux type de vin : sec et doux.
    • L’aszu est un vin doux naturel, pour lequel les grains d’aszu sont récoltés séparément. Puis on ajoute le raisin botrytisé ainsi obtenu au vin de base ou au moût, et la vinification se fait ensemble. Les catégories d’aszu sont classées selon la mesure traditionnelle, par les nombres de “puttony” (la hotte) de 3 à 6 et pour la qualité supérieure on utilise encore la catégorie “d’aszu esszencia“. Les catégories sont définies selon la teneur en sucre résiduel.
  4. Les variétés
    Aujourd’hui on cultive quatre cépages dans la région, mais à l’époque on a eu de 20 à 30 variétés différentes, parmi eux, un cépage, le Kôvérszolo (“Grappe grosse”) est repris maintenant pour réévaluation. Les cépages principaux sont le Furmint et le Harslevelu (“Feuille de tilleul”) et en plus le Sarga muskotaly (Muscat de Lunel) et le Zéta (une nouvelle variété) qui sont les seuls cépages autorisés. Ce dernier n’est cultivé que depuis deux décennies, tandis que les autres sont les cépages traditionnels de la région.
  5. La classification
    La classification actuelle des terroirs a été réalisée en 1981. La base de ce cadastrage est une évaluation les facteurs écologiques sur 400 points.
  6. Les développements actuels
    La plupart des domaines vitivinicoles produisent des vins sélectionnés par lieu-dits (terroirs). Les lieux-dits et leurs dénominations sont devenus plus en plus un facteur de marché. Mais en matière de l’appellation il faut encore bien clarifier la législation. Au niveau international actuellement la question la plus difficile est de trouver une solution pour le problème de la production des vins sous le nom de Tokaj en Slovaquie.

  1. History and traditions
    The recent surface of the limited vineyard area of Tokaj wine district is 5.293 ha of 27 communes. The wine history goes back to 1550, the first aszu wine was produced in 1650. The first regulation was implemented in 1737-ben and the vineyard-site classification was carried out in 1772 first time.
  2. Ecologie potential
    In Tokaj district the continental climate is dominant, average temperature is 10,5 °C, the rainfall as much as 550 mm/year for long term. The special microclimate is originated in the Zemplém mountains situated like “V” and its slope facing south and soutlreast protecting vineyards from cool coming from Ukraine, over Carpathian mountains. Basic factors are the rivers flowing at the feet of mountains, called Tisza and Bodrog providing the necessary humidity for Botrytis. Volcanic and sediment soils vary.
  3. Wines
    In Tokaj the wine are also classified, there are three basic ones such as follows:
    a. Varietal wines produced from healthy grapes.
    b. Szamorodni (means “as it was bom ”). Healthy and Botritys infected grapes picked together and processed together for dry or sweet ones.
    c. Aszu. Sweet wines, Botritys infected berries are selected and put onto base wine or must. According to their sugar rate it may be 3-6 puttonyos, or aszu-essencia aged in barrel.
  4. Grape-vine varieties
    Nowadays there are four grape-vine varieties cultivated but there was time listed 20-30 ones including now again tested promising Kovér. Furmint and Hârslevelu are main varieties, Y ellow Muscat and Zéta are complementary ones. The last one registered only in 80s.
  5. Classification
    The recent running vineyard-site classification was set up in 1981. Clustering is based on ecologic investigation of 18 ecological factors resulted in 400 mark system.
  6. Recent developments
    Now the most wineries produce vineyard-site selected wines. These appellations have become important marketing factors. The legal and technical backgrounds need to be further investigations. At the international stage the Slovakian Tokaj issue seems to be the most difficult to achieve agreement.

DOI:

Publication date: February 16, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2002

Type: Article

Authors

Dr. Erno Péter BOTOS (1), András BACSÓ (2)

(1) General Director, Research Institute for Vine and Wine, H-Kecskemét
(2) Manager, Oremus Estate, H-Tolcsva

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2002

Citation

Related articles…

The modification of cultural practices in grapevine cv. Syrah, does it modify the characteristics of the musts?

The work shows the results of a year of experimentation (2020) in a Syrah variety vineyard in La Roda (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain). The trial approach was on a randomized block design with two factors: Irrigation (I) and Pruning (P).
Irrigation schedules were adjusted to apply amounts close to 1,500 m3/ha. With this provision, 2 different irrigation treatments were proposed: I1) Start of irrigation from pea-sized grape to post-harvest (providing at least 20 % of the total amount of irrigation water to be provided post-harvest); I2) Start of irrigation from pea-sized grape to harvest (usual irrigation practice in the study area). Pruning was proposed with two treatments, one at the end of January (P1), which is pruning on a conventional date; and P2) pruning carried out at the beginning of budding. In total, 4 repetitions were designed with 4 elementary plots, each one of them representing one of the proposed treatments (I1P1; I1P2; I2P1; I2P2). In total, 16 plots were worked on and each elementary plot consisted of 30 strains, distributed in 3 lines.
The productive response was evaluated with the yield results of the harvest harvested at 23 ºBrix. The qualitative response was measured in the musts through the indices of technological (acidity, pH and potassium) and phenolic maturity and aromatic compounds in free and glycosylated fractions. The treatments tested had, in general, an effect on the different variables analyzed.

Estimating bulk stomatal conductance of grapevine canopies

In response to changes in their environment, grapevines regulate transpiration using various physiological mechanisms that alter conductance of water through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Expressed as bulk stomatal conductance at the canopy scale, it varies diurnally in response to changes in vapor pressure deficit and net radiation, and over the season to changes in soil water deficits and hydraulic conductivity of both soil and plant. It is necessary to characterize the response of conductance to these variables to better model how vine transpiration also responds to these variables. Furthermore, to be relevant for vineyard-scale modeling, conductance is best characterized using data collected in a vineyard setting. Applying a crop canopy energy flux model developed by Shuttleworth and Wallace, bulk stomatal conductance was estimated using measurements of individual vine sap flow, temperature and humidity within the vine canopy, and estimates of net radiation absorbed by the vine canopy. These measurements were taken on several vines in a non-irrigated vineyard in Bordeaux France, using equipment that did not interfere with ongoing vineyard operations. An inverted Penman-Monteith equation was then used to calculate bulk stomatal conductance on 15-minute intervals from July to mid-September 2020. Time-series plots show significant diurnal variation and seasonal decreases in conductance, with overall values similar to those in the literature. Global sensitivity analysis using non-parametric regression found transpiration flux and vapor pressure deficit to be the most important input variables to the calculation of bulk stomatal conductance, with absorbed net radiation and bulk boundary layer conductance being much less important. Conversely, bulk stomatal conductance was one of the most important inputs when calculating vine transpiration, further emphasizing the need for characterizing its response to environmental changes for use in vineyard water use modeling.

Current climate change in the Oplenac wine-growing district (Serbia)

Serbian autochthonous vine varieties Smederevka (for white wines) and Prokupac (for rosé and red wines) are the primary representatives of typical characteristics of wines and terroir of numerous wine-growing areas in Serbia. In the past, these varieties were the leading vine varieties, however, as the result of globalization of winemaking and the trend of consumption of wines from widely prevalent vine varieties, they were replaced by introduced international varieties. Smederevka and Prokupac vine varieties are characterized by later time of grape ripening, and relative sensitivity to low temperatures. Climate conditions can be a restrictive factor for production of high-quality grapes and wine and for the spatial spreading of these varieties in hilly continental wine-growing areas.
This paper focuses on the spatial analysis of changes of main climate parameters, in particular, analysis of viticultural bioclimatic indices that were determined for the purposes of viticulture zoning of wine-growing areas in the period 1961-2010, and those same parameters determined for the current, that is, referential climate period (1988-2017). Results of the research, that is, analysis of climate changes indicate that the majority of examined climate parameters in the Oplenac wine-growing district improved from the perspective of Smederevka and Prokupac vine varieties. These studies of climate conditions indicate that changes of analyzed climate parameters, that is, bioclimatic indices will be favorable for cultivation of varieties with later grape ripening times and those more sensitive to low temperatures, such as the autochthonous vine varieties Smederevka and Prokupac, therefore, it is recommended to producers to more actively plant vineyards with these varieties in the territory of the Oplenac wine-growing district.

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.

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,