Terroir 1996 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Cultures des vignobles en forte pente: possibilités de mécanisation. Effet de l’exposition et de l’orientation des rangs

Cultures des vignobles en forte pente: possibilités de mécanisation. Effet de l’exposition et de l’orientation des rangs

Abstract

Plus de la moitié du vignoble suisse (14’000 ha) est situé sur des coteaux en forte pente (> 30%). Dans certains vignobles, la pente naturelle du terrain a été réduite par la construction de terrasses soutenues par des murs. Ces murs, établis depuis des générations, constituent souvent une valeur paysagère de haut niveau. Dans ces situations, la culture de la vigne s’est généralement faite dans le sens de la pente, où une multitude de ceps (> 10’000 ceps/ha) conduits en gobelet sur échalas tirent le meilleur profit du rayonnement lumineux. Ce système de conduite limite fortement les possibilités de mécanisation et exige de ce fait un nombre élevé d’heures de main-d’œuvre par an. Pendant de nombreuses années, les façons culturales ont été faites au moyen d’outils tirés par un câble, entraîné par un treuil. Cette mécanisation est pratiquement abandonnée aujourd’hui, l’entretien des sols se faisant essentiellement par désherbage chimique. Cette pratique, liée à la diminution des apports de matière organique, a contribué à augmenter la sensibilité des sols à l’érosion, en particulier dans les terrains peu perméables.
La réduction des risques d’érosion et la nécessité de diminuer fortement les coûts de production ont exigé une transformation complète de la culture des vignobles en pente. Dans les situations où l’utilisation du tracteur interligne était possible (pente inférieure à 35%, grandeur des parcelles et possibilités d’accès suffisantes), le système de conduite mi-large (150 à 200 cm d’interligne), avec des rangs à un seul plan de palissage orienté dans le sens de la pente, s’est fortement développé. Les possibilités de mécanisation sont proches de celles des vignobles de plaine. Une gestion du sol, adaptée à la nature du terrain, doit y être appliquée pour réduire au maximum les dégâts d’érosion. L’enherbement des sols constitue une technique idéale lorsque les disponibilités en eau sont suffisantes.
Dans les situations où l’emploi du tracteur, dans le sens de la pente, n’était pas possible (déclivité supérieure à 35%, forme des parcelles inadaptée), la rationalisation s’est faite en orientant les rangs en travers de la pente et en cultivant la vigne en banquettes, selon les courbes de niveau. Cette technique, traditionnellement utilisée dans le vignoble du Tessin pour réduire les risques d’érosion et d’éboulement dus à la forte pluviométrie, inégalement répartie avec souvent des orages violents, s’est largement répandue dans les vignobles de suisse alémanique et française. La culture en banquettes garantit une bonne protection du sol contre l’érosion, augmente sensiblement les possibilités de mécanisation des vignobles en forte pente et diminue la pénibilité du travail manuel (Murisier, 1981; Murisier et al., 1984; Murisier et Ferretti, 1999).

DOI:

Publication date: February 24, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2000

Type: Article

Authors

F. MURISIER, M. FERRETTI, V. ZUFFEREY

Station fédérale de recherches en production végétale
de Changins, Centre viticole du Caudoz, CH-1009 PULLY

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2000

Citation

Related articles…

Rapid damage assessment and grapevine recovery after fire

There is increasing scientific consensus that climate changeis the underlying cause of the prolonged dry and hot conditions that have increased the risk of extreme fire weather in many countries around the world. In December 2019, a bushfire event occurred in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia where 25,000 hectares were burnt and in vineyards and surrounding areas various degrees of scorching and infrastructure damage occurred. The ability to coordinate and plan recovery after a fire event relies on robust and timely data. The current practice for measuring the scale and distribution of fire damage is to walk or drive the vineyard and score individual vines based on visual observation. The process is time consuming, subjective, or semi-quantitative at best. After the December 2019 fires, it took many months to access properties and estimate the area of vineyard damaged. This study compares the rapid assessment and mapping of fire damage using high-resolution satellite imagery with more traditional ground based measures. Satellite imagery tracking vineyard recovery in the season following the bushfire is being correlated to field assessments of vineyard productivity such as canopy health and development, fertility and carbohydrate storage. Canopy health in the seasons following the fires correlated to the severity of the initial fire damage. Severely damaged vines had reduced canopy growth, were infertile or had very low fertility as well as lower carbohydrate levels in buds and canes during dormancy, which reduced productivity in the seasons following the bushfire event. In contrast, vines that received minor damage were able to recover within 1-2 years. Tools that rapidly and affordably capture the extent and severity of damage over large vineyard area will allow producers, government and industry bodies to manage decisions in relation to fire recovery planning, coordination and delivery, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their response.

Low-cost sensors as a support tool to monitor soil-plant heat exchanges in a Mediterranean vineyard

Mediterranean viticulture is increasingly exposed to more frequent extreme conditions such as heat waves. These extreme events co-occur with low soil water content, high air vapor pressure deficit and high solar radiant energy fluxes and result in leaf and berry sunburn, lower yield, and berry quality, which is a major constraint for the sustainability of the sector. Grape growers must find ways to proper and effectively manage heat waves and extreme canopy and berry temperatures. Irrigation to keep soil moisture levels and enable adequate plant turgor, and convective and evaporative cooling emerged as a key tool to overcome this major challenge. The effects of irrigation on soil and plant water status are easily quantifiable but the impact of irrigation on soil and canopy temperature and on heat convection from soil to cluster zone remain less characterized. Therefore, a more detailed quantification of vineyard heat fluxes is highly relevant to better understand and implement strategies to limit the effects of extreme weather events on grapevine leaf and berry physiology and vineyards performance. Low-cost sensor technologies emerge as an opportunity to improve monitoring and support decision making in viticulture. However, validation of low-cost sensors is mandatory for practical applicability. A two-year study was carried in a vineyard in Alentejo, south of Portugal, using low-cost thermal cameras (FLIR One, 80×60 pixels and FLIR C5, 160×120 pixels, 8-14 µm, FLIR systems, USA) and pocket thermohygrometers (Extech RHT30, EXTECH instruments, USA) to monitor grapevine and soil temperatures. Preliminary results show that low-cost cameras can detect severe water stress and support the evaluation of vertical canopy temperature variability, providing information on soil surface temperature. All these thermal parameters can be relevant for soil and crop management and be used in decision support systems.

Adapting the vineyard to climate change in warm climate regions with cultural practices

Since the 1980s global regime shift, grape growers have been steadily adapting to a changing climate. These adaptations have preserved the region-climate-cultivar rapports that have established the global trade of wine with lucrative economic benefits since the middle of 17th century. The advent of using fractions of crop and actual evapotranspiration replacement in vineyards with the use of supplemental irrigation has furthered the adaptation of wine grape cultivation. The shift in trellis systems, as well as pruning methods from positioned shoot systems to sprawling canopies, as well as adapting the bearing surface from head-trained, cane-pruned to cordon-trained, spur-pruned systems have also aided in the adaptation of grapevine to warmer temperatures. In warm climates, the use of shade cloth or over-head shade films not only have aided in arresting the damage of heat waves, but also identified opportunities to reduce the evapotranspiration from vineyards, reducing environmental footprint of vineyard. Our increase in knowledge on how best to understand the response of grapevine to climate change was aided with the identification of solar radiation exposure biomarker that is now used for phenotyping cultivars in their adaptability to harsh environments. Using fruit-based metrics such as sugar-flavonoid relationships were shown to be better indicators of losses in berry integrity associated with a warming climate, rather than solely focusing on region-climate-cultivar rapports. The resilience of wine grape was further enhanced by exploitation of rootstock × scion combinations that can resist untoward droughts and warm temperatures by making more resilient grapevine combinations. Our understanding of soil-plant-atmosphere continuum in the vineyard has increased within the last 50 years in such a manner that growers are able to use no-till systems with the aid of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi inoculation with permanent cover cropping making the vineyard more resilient to droughts and heat waves. In premium wine grape regions viticulture has successfully adapted to a rapidly changing climate thus far, but berry based metrics are raising a concern that we may be approaching a tipping point.

How does aromatic composition of red wines, resulting from varieties adapted to climate change, modulate fruity aroma?

One of the major issues for the wine sector is the impact of climate change linked to the increasing temperatures which affects physicochemical parameters of the grape varieties planted in Bordeaux vineyard and consequently, the quality of wine. In some varietals, the attenuation of their fresh fruity character is accompanied by the accentuation of dried-fruit notes [1]. As a new adaptive strategy on climate change, some winegrowers have initiated changes in the Bordeaux blend of vine varieties [2]. This study intends to explore the fruitiness in wines produced from grape varieties adapted to the future climate of Bordeaux. 10 commercial single–varietal wines from 2018 vintage made from the main grape varieties in the Bordeaux region (Cabernet franc, Cabernet-Sauvignon and Merlot) as well as from indigenous grape varieties from the Mediterranean basin, such as Cyprus (Yiannoudin), France (Syrah), Greece (Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro), Portugal (Touriga Nacional) and Spain (Garnacha and Tempranillo), were selected among 19 samples using sensory descriptive analyses. Both sensory and instrumental analyses were coupled, to investigate their fruity aroma expression. For sensory analysis, samples were prepared from wine, using a semi preparative HPLC method which preserves wine aroma and isolates fruity characteristics in 25 specific fractions [3,4]. Fractions of interest with intense fruity aromas were sensorially selected for each wine by a trained panel and mixed with ethanol and microfiltered water to obtain fruity aromatic reconstitutions (FAR) [5]. A free sorting task was applied to categorize FAR according to their similarities or dissimilarities, and different clusters were highlighted. Instrumental analysis of the different FAR and wines demonstrated variations in their molecular composition. Results obtained from sensory and gas chromatography analysis enrich the knowledge of the fruity expression of red wines from “new” grape varieties opening up new perspectives in wine technology, including blending, thus providing new tools for producers.

Short-term relationships between climate and grapevine trunk diseases in southern French vineyards

[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"...