Caratterizzazione delle produzioni vitivinicole dell’ area del Barolo: un’esperienza pluridisciplinare triennale (1)

Depuis un an, nous essayons de mettre en place un projet de développement socio-économique et culturel d’une zone située essentiellement au sud de la Garonne et à cheval sur 3 départements (le Lot et Garonne, le Gers et le Tam et Garonne) et sur 2 régions (l’Aquitaine et Midi Pyrénées): le pays du Brulhois, “porte de la Gascogne”.

The wine production is an important activity in many Ibero-American countries. The wine producer regions of these countries configure a large use of different climate types and viticultural climates.

The Languedoc-Roussillon wineries are facing a decline in wine yields particularly PGI yields due to many factors. Climate change is just ones, but is expected to increase in the future. There is also structurally a large heterogeneity of yield profiles among terroirs, varieties and strategies. This work investigates the link between yield, competitiveness and resilience to explore how resilient winegrowers have been in the recent past. To this end two approaches have been combined; (i) an accountancy database analysis at estate scale and (ii) municipality level competitiveness analysis. A new resilience indicator that characterizes the capacity of an estate to absorb yield variation is also defined. The FADN database between 2000 and 2018 of ex-Languedoc-Roussillon (France) and other data are used to analyse the current situation and the past evolution of competitiveness and resilience by type of estate (type of farm: PGI and/or PDO & type of commercialization: bulk and/or bottles). The net margin, which defines competitiveness, is not correlated to yield for all types but depends on the type of commercialization and the level of specialisation. The resilience indicator shows that the net margin of estates specialized in PGI is particularly sensitive to yield declines. We also show that price evolutions seem to compensate the effect of yield losses for the majority of types. Municipality scale analysis shows the links between local pedoclimate, yield, commercialization strategies and price. Overlapping a PDO with a PGI does not always increase a municipality’s PGI competitiveness. It is difficult to make links between causes and effects due to the complexity of the wine production system. Production diversification may be a solution. Resorting to the two level of analysis helps resolving the data gap that is necessary to explore the links between yield and economic performance of the wine estates in the long term.

With the development of naturality expectations, wines produced without any addition of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) become very popular for consumers and such wines are increasingly present on the market. Recent studies also showed that Bordeaux red wines without added SO₂ could be differentiated from a sensory point of view from similar wines produced with SO₂¹. Thus, the aim of the current study was to characterize from a sensory point of view, specific aromas of wines without added SO₂ and to identify compounds involved.

Germicidal ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light has shown promising results for suppression of several plant-pathogenic microorganims, including Erysiphe necator, which attacks grapevine. In Washington State the majority of winegrape production is in a semi-arid steppe environment, with historically low powdery mildew disease pressure, making it a promising area to deploy UV-C as a disease management tool. Trials focusing on UVC application timing and frequency will assist in developing regionally-appropriate application recommendations for eastern Washington State.