Terroir 1996 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Comportamiento de la variedade “Touriga Nacional” en la Región Demarcada del Douro, en diferentes condiciones climáticas y edáficas

Comportamiento de la variedade “Touriga Nacional” en la Región Demarcada del Douro, en diferentes condiciones climáticas y edáficas

Abstract

A Região Demarcada do Douro, oferece uma diversidade geográfica, climática e biológica (grande número de castas em cultivo) extremamente grande e complexa, originando vinhas de tipo e qualidades distintos de acordo com as situações (“Terroirs”). Por tal motivo, foi criado em 1948, um método de pontuação para classificação das vinhas, em função de diversos parâmetros pedo-climáticos, geográficos e biológicos o que permitiu classificar as diferentes parcelas segundo classes distintas de qualidade.
Tal conjunto de informações e conhecimentos já adquiridos, constitui no entanto, uma primeira aproximação de uma definição mais detalhada do conceito de zonagem, ou seja, a relação casta-“terroir” não está ainda suficientemente estudada e definida o que origina frequentemente dificuldades na escolha dos encepamentos que optimizem a qualidade dos vinhos em função da melhor repartição das castas pelas parcelas, cujas características conferem a cada casta a sua melhor adaptação.
O trabalho em curso, iniciou-se em 1998, com a marcação de 50 parcelas de vinha da casta Touriga Nacional distribuídas pela Região Demarcada do Douro. A todas elas foi feita uma caracterização geográfica (altitude, exposição, declive), pedo-climática (análise de solo e registo de dados meteorológicos) e vitícola (forma de condução, porta-enxerto, idade, sistematização do terreno e embardamento, densidade de plantação). Anualmente, em todas estas parcelas geo-pedo-climáticamente distintas, com altitudes dos 100m aos 400m, exposições de NE, SE, SW, E, S e N, declives de 5% a 45%, sistematização em Vinha ao alto e Patamares, condução em Guyot e Cordão, procede-se a determinações no coberto vegetal (do pintor á vindima), controlo de maturação (de 10 em 10 dias), análise de mosto, rendimento e peso de lenha de poda, pretendendo-se com a evolução deste trabalho, contribuir para um melhor conhecimento da casta Touriga Nacional, em diferentes situações edafo-climáticas e culturais tão pronunciadas e frequentes na Região Demarcada do Douro e, contribuir para uma análise mais minuciosa da relação casta com o “terroir” e produto final (mosto).

DOI:

Publication date: February 24, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2000

Type: Article

Authors

Ana Alexandra Oliveira, Nuno Magalhães

Departamento de Fitotécnia e Engenharia Rural – Viticultura
Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Apartado 202, 5001-911 Vila Real, Portugal

Contact the author

Keywords

Douro, Touriga Nacional, Zonagem vitícola

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2000

Citation

Related articles…

Optimizing stomatal traits for future climates

Stomatal traits determine grapevine water use, carbon supply, and water stress, which directly impact yield and berry chemistry. Breeding for stomatal traits has the strong potential to improve grapevine performance under future, drier conditions, but the trait values that breeders should target are unknown. We used a functional-structural plant model developed for grapevine (HydroShoot) to determine how stomatal traits impact canopy gas exchange, water potential, and temperature under historical and future conditions in high-quality and hot-climate California wine regions (Napa and the Central Valley). Historical climate (1990-2010) was collected from weather stations and future climate (2079-99) was projected from 4 representative climate models for California, assuming medium- and high-emissions (RCP 4.5 and 8.5). Five trait parameterizations, representing mean and extreme values for the maximum stomatal conductance (gmax) and leaf water potential threshold for stomatal closure (Ψsc), were defined from meta-analyses. Compared to mean trait values, the water-spending extremes (highest gmax or most negative Ysc) had negligible benefits for carbon gain and canopy cooling, but exacerbated vine water use and stress, for both sites and climate scenarios. These traits increased cumulative transpiration by 8 – 17%, changed cumulative carbon gain by -4 – 3%, and reduced minimum water potentials by 10 – 18%. Conversely, the water-saving extremes (lowest gmax or least negative Ψsc) strongly reduced water use and stress, but potentially compromised the carbon supply for ripening. Under RCP 8.5 conditions, these traits reduced transpiration by 22 – 35% and carbon gain by 9 – 16% and increased minimum water potentials by 20 – 28%, compared to mean values. Overall, selecting for more water-saving stomatal traits could improve water-use efficiency and avoid the detrimental effects of highly negative canopy water potentials on yield and quality, but more work is needed to evaluate whether these benefits outweigh the consequences of minor declines in carbon gain for fruit production.

Grape berry size is a key factor in determining New Zealand Pinot noir wine composition

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.

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"...

Soil, vine, climate change – what is observed – what is expected

To evaluate the current and future impact of climate change on Viticulture requires an integrated view on a complex interacting system within the soil-plant-atmospheric continuum under continuous change. Aside of the globally observed increase in temperature in basically all viticulture regions for at least four decades, we observe several clear trends at the regional level in the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration. Additionally the recently published 6th assessment report of the IPCC (The physical science basis) shows case-dependent further expected shifts in climate patterns which will have substantial impacts on the way we will conduct viticulture in the decades to come.
Looking beyond climate developments, we observe rising temperatures in the upper soil layers which will have an impact on the distribution of microbial populations, the decay rate of organic matter or the storage capacity for carbon, thus affecting the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the viscosity of water in the soil-plant pathway, altering the transport of water. If the upper soil layers dry out faster due to less rainfall and/or increased evapotranspiration driven by higher temperatures, the spectral reflection properties of bare soil change and the transport of latent heat into the fruiting zone is increased putting a higher temperature load on the fruit. Interactions between micro-organisms in the rhizosphere and the grapevine root system are poorly understood but respond to environmental factors (such as increased soil temperatures) and the plant material (rootstock for instance), respectively the cultivation system (for example bio-organic versus conventional). This adds to an extremely complex system to manage in terms of increased resilience, adaptation to and even mitigation of climate change. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, effects on the individual expressions of wines with a given origin, seem highly likely to become more apparent.

Modeling island and coastal vineyards potential in the context of climate change

Climate change impacts regional and local climates, which in turn affects the world’s wine regions. In the short term, these modifications rises issues about maintaining quality and style of wine, and in a longer term about the suitability of grape varieties and the sustainability of traditional wine regions. Thus, adaptation to climate change represents a major challenge for viticulture. In this context, island and coastal vineyards could become coveted areas due to their specific climatic conditions. In regions subject to warming, the proximity of the sea can moderate extremes temperatures, which could be an advantage for wine. However, coastal and island areas are particular prized spaces and subject to multiple pressures that make the establishment or extension of viticulture complex.
In this perspective, it seems relevant to assess the potentialities of coastal and island areas for viticulture. This contribution will present a spatial optimization model that tends to characterize most suitable agroclimatic patterns in historical or emerging vineyards according to different scenarios. Thanks to an in-depth bibliography a global inventory of coastal and insular vineyards on a worldwide scale has been realized. Relevant criteria have been identified to describe the specificities of these vineyards. They are used as input data in the optimization process, which will optimize some objectives and spatial aspects. According to a predefined scenario, the objectives are set in three main categories associated with climatic characteristics, vineyards characteristics and management strategies. At the end of this optimization process, a series of maps presents the different spatial configurations that maximize the scenario objectives.