Étude de l’adaptation des cépages Muscat à petits grains et Muscat d’Alexandrie dans l’A.O.C. Muscat de Rivesaltes

The study was carried out in 2006 with Merlot grapes from vines grown using the trellis system, where four treatments were compared with different levels of water stress.

This work aimed at setting up a multivariate and geostatistical methodology to map natural terroir units of the viticultural areas at the province scale (1:125,000).

The use of bees as pollinators in vine varieties with physiologically female flowers (Picolit, Bicane, Ceresa, Moscato rosa, etc.) (Cargnello, 1983) and as bio-indicators for biodiversity and environmental sustainability is well-known. Furthermore, there are interests in: 1-a. Making the viticulture of Belluno (Province of Veneto in North-eastern Italy, which is also famous for the Dolomites -a UNESCO World Heritage-) regain the socioeconomic role which it is entitled to and which it had got in its past by aiming at the enhancement of local grape variety in harmony with others, for example with the neighboring area of the Conegliano and Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG; 2-a. Maintaining and further improving the important natural and healthy environment of Belluno, and making its territory and the “lookout” means of the environmental sustainability, including its vineyards, even more naturally original and sustainable 4.1C.

Terroir zoning studies have to manage the heterogeneity and complexity of the landscape properties and processes. The varying geology is one of the main landscape properties conditioning the spatial variability of terroirs.

From the standpoint of wine aroma oxidation there are two effects observed: aroma degradation of oxygen sensitive compounds (polyfunctional mercaptans) and the appearance of new substances with high aromatic power (acetaldehyde, methional, phenylacetaldehyde, sotolon, alkenals, isobutanal and 2, 3-metylbutanals) (1-5). According to our experience, Strecker aldehydes are compounds with highest sensory relevance in the oxidative degradation of many wines (5-7).