Terroir 1996 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Impact of urbanization on optimum wine Terroirs in the Bordeaux region sample of one township of the Entre-Deux-Mers Area

Impact of urbanization on optimum wine Terroirs in the Bordeaux region sample of one township of the Entre-Deux-Mers Area

Abstract

[English version below]

L’étude présentée porte sur une commune de l’Entre-Deux-Mers dans le bordelais. Nous caractérisons dans un premier temps les potentialités des sols vis-à-vis de la production de vins rouges de qualité (délimitation de terroirs grâce à la prise en compte des couvertures pédologiques et des caractéristiques morphométriques du terrain : pentes, expositions, convexités. Dans un second temps, nous récapitulons l’évolution historique des occupations des sols depuis 1790 : l’emplacement des vignes est ainsi localisé sur les terroirs respectifs des communes. Enfin, une étude prospective résultant d’enquêtes sur l’utilisation du foncier, situe le devenir prévisible de l’espace étudié (en particulier dans ses composantes viticoles et urbaines).
Les résultats mettent en évidence l’influence de la pression d’urbanisation sur la consommation du patrimoine rare et non renouvelable que sont les terroirs viticoles. Les enjeux patrimoniaux collectifs (protection d’un terroir) se manifestent ici en opposition avec des enjeux patrimoniaux individuels : les prix du foncier à bâtir orientent les stratégies des propriétaires fonciers sur de tels terroirs. De plus, l’urbanisation contribue à la disparition d’unités de production lorsqu’elles se trouvent enclavées dans des parcellaires devenus urbains. Les méthodes utilisées dans le cadre de cette étude peuvent constituer la base d’outils d’aménagement pour permettre la préservation d’un patrimoine d’une grande importance économique comme paysagère, que sont les terroirs viticoles. Le patrimoine sol est une composante essentielle à prendre en compte dans un objectif de développement durable : il y a une dimension économique de la filière viti-vinicole, dimension sociale (emplois directs et dérivés : tourisme, culture), dimension environnementale (imperméabilisation des surfaces urbaines, destruction de sols, métamorphose des paysages).

This study was carried out on a township of the Entre-Deux-Mers area in the Bordeaux wine region. We initially focused on soil potentialities as regards high quality red wine production. Criteria such as soil type, slope, aspect (sunlight) and curvatures were taken into account to produce a map of best potential “terroirs”. Secondly, land cover changes were studied from 1790 to the present. Past and present vineyard delimitations were compared with the above mentioned map. At the same time, interviews carried out on wine producers allowed us to foresee changes in land use. The main goal was to assess the evolution of urbanization on optimum wine “terroirs”. Results show that there are losses of those “terroirs” due to urbanization. In this case, collective and individual interests are opposed because in Entre-Deux-Mers, the price of arable land is lower than that of land zoned for building. Some wine producers prefer to sell their land for building purposes. As a result, some vineyards are surrounded by urban areas and are likely to disappear in a short period of time (access for machines is more difficult and pesticide treatments are not easily accepted).  It is important to protect wine growing soils because they constitute a valuable and a nonrenewable resource. They are the basis of the Bordeaux region’s landscapes and many economic (i.e. tourism) and social activities depend directly on their protection.

DOI:

Publication date: February 15, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2002

Type: Article

Authors

P. CHERY (1), X. CHONE (2), A. ARMITAGE-LEE, L. COMMAGNAC (1), M-F. SlAK. (1)

(1) LARGE, ENITA de Bordeaux, BP 201, f-33175 GRADIGNAN cedex
(2) Laboratoire d’Ecophysiologie de la Vigne, ENITA de Bordeaux, BP 201, f33175 GRADIGNAN cedex

Keywords

Terroir viticole, AOC, urbanisation, Entre-Deux-Mers, analyse spatiale
Terroir, urbanization, Bordeaux wine region, spatial analysis

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2002

Citation

Related articles…

Bioclimatic shifts and land use options for Viticulture in Portugal

Land use, plays a relevant role in the climatic system. It endows means for agriculture practices thus contributing to the food supply. Since climate and land are closely intertwined through multiple interface processes, climate change may lead to significant impacts in land use. In this study, 1-km observational gridded datasets are used to assess changes in the Köppen–Geiger and Worldwide Bioclimatic (WBCS)

Evolution of the amino acids content through grape ripening: Effect of foliar application of methyl jasmonate with or without urea

The parameters that determine the grape quality, and therefore the optimal harvest time, suffer variations during berry ripening, related to climate change, with the widely known problem of the gap between technological and phenolic maturities. However, there are few studies about its incidence on grape nitrogen composition. For this reason, the use of an elicitor, methyl jasmonate (MeJ), alone or with urea, is proposed as a tool to reduce climatic decoupling, allowing to establish the harvest time in order to achieve the optimum grape quality. The aim was to study the effect of MeJ and MeJ+Urea foliar applications on the evolution of Tempranillo amino acids content throughout the grape maturation. Three treatments were foliarly applied, at veraison and 7 days later: control (water), MeJ (10 mM) and MeJ+Urea (10 mM+6 kg N/ha). Grape samples were taken at five stages of maturation: day before the first and second applications, 15 days after the second application (pre-harvest), harvest day, and 15 days after harvest (post-harvest). The amino acids analysis of the samples was carried out by HPLC. Results showed that the evolution of amino acids was similar regardless of the treatment; however, foliar applications influenced the nitrogen compounds content, i.e., there was no qualitative effect but quantitative one. Most of the amino acids reached their maximum concentration in pre-harvest, being higher in grapes from the treatments than in the control. In general, no differences in grape amino acids content were observed between MeJ and MeJ+Urea treatments. Foliar applications with MeJ and MeJ+Urea enhanced the grape amino acids content, without affecting their profile, helping to optimize their quality and allowing to establish a more complete grape ripening standard. Therefore, MeJ and MeJ+Urea foliar applications can be a simple agronomic practice, which has shown promising results in order to enhance the grape quality.

First step in the preparation of a soil map of the Protected Designation of Origin Valdepeñas (Central, Spain)

This work is a first step to make a map of vineyard soils. The characterization of the soils of the Protected Designation of Origin (D.P.O.) Valdepeñas will allow to group the studied profiles according to their physico-chemical characteristics and the concentrations of most relevant chemical elements. 90 soil profiles were analysed throughout the territory and the soils were sampled and described according to FAO (2006) and classified according to and Soil Taxonomy (2014). All samples were air dried, sieved and some physico-chemical parameters were determined following standard protocols. Also, major and trace elements were analysed by X-ray fluorescence. The statistically study was made using the SPSS program. Trend maps were made using the ArcGIS program. The studied soils have the following average properties: pH, 8.3; electrical conductivity, 0,20 dS/m (low); clay, 18.8% (medium) and CaCO3, 17.1% (high). In the study for the major elements. The major elements of these soils are Si, followed by Ca and Al, with an average content of 203.7 g/kg, 105.5 g/kg and 74.0 g/kg respectively. On the other hand, 27 trace elements have been studied. Of all of them, it can be highlighted the average values of Ba (361.8 mg/kg), Sr (129.3 mg/kg), Rb (83.4 mg/kg), V (74.2 mg/kg) and Ce (70.6 mg/kg). Ba, V and Ce values are higher and the values of Sr and Rb are lower to those found in the literature. The discriminant analysis shows a percentage of grouping of 91%. The content of chemical elements together with the physico-chemical characteristics allows grouping the soils in 4 group according to their order in the classification to Soil Taxonomy; due to the importance of the Calcisols in Castilla-La Mancha, it has been decided to establish them as their own group even if they do not appear in Soil Taxonomy classification.

An analytical framework to site-specifically study climate influence on grapevine involving the functional and Bayesian exploration of farm data time series synchronized using an eGDD thermal index

Climate influence on grapevine physiology is prevalent and this influence is only expected to increase with climate change. Although governed by a general determinism, climate influence on grapevine physiology may present variations according to the terroir. In addition, these site-specific differences are likely to be enhanced when climate influence is studied using farm data. Indeed, farm data integrate additional sources of variation such as a varying representativity of the conditions actually experienced in the field. Nevertheless, there is a real challenge in valuing farm data to enable grape growers to understand their own terroir and consequently adapt their practices to the local conditions. In such a context, this article proposes a framework to site-specifically study climate influence on grapevine physiology using farm data. It focuses on improving the analysis of time series of weather data. The analytical framework includes the synchronization of time series using site-specific thermal indices computed with an original method called Extended Growing Degree Days (eGDD). Synchronized time series are then analyzed using a Bayesian functional Linear regression with Sparse Steps functions (BLiSS) in order to detect site-specific periods of strong climate influence on yield development. The article focuses on temperature and rain influence on grape yield development as a case study. It uses data from three commercial vineyards respectively situated in the Bordeaux region (France), California (USA) and Israel. For all vineyards, common periods of climate influence on yield development were found. They corresponded to already known periods, for example around veraison of the year before harvest. However, the periods differed in their precise timing (e.g. before, around or after veraison), duration and correlation direction with yield. Other periods were found for only one or two vineyards and/or were not referred to in literature, for example during the winter before harvest.

Sustainable fertilisation of the vineyard in Galicia (Spain)

Excessive fertilization of the vineyard leads to low quality grapes, increased costs and a negative impact on the environment. In order to establish an integrated management system aimed at a sustainable fertilization of the vineyards, nutritional reference levels were established. For this purpose, 30 representative vineyards of the Albariño variety were studied, in which soil and petiole analyses were carried out for two years and grape yield and quality at harvest were measured. In both years of study, soil pH, calcium, sodium and cation exchange capacity were positively correlated with calcium content and negatively correlated with manganese in grapes. Irrigated vineyards had higher levels of aluminium in soil and lower levels of calcium in petiole. Climatic conditions were very different in the years of the study. The year 2019 was colder than usual, in 2020 there was a marked water stress with high summer temperatures. This resulted in medium-high acidity in grapes in 2019 and low acidity in 2020, with sugar levels being similar both years. A very marked decrease in must amino nitrogen was observed in 2020, with ammonia nitrogen remaining stable. The correlation of acidity and sugar values in grapes with soil and petiole analysis data made it possible to establish reference levels for the nutritional diagnosis of the Albariño variety in this region. Based on these results, an easy-to-use TIC application is currently being created for grapegrowers, aimed at improving the sustainability of the vineyard through reasoned fertilization. This study has now been extended to other Galician vine varieties.