Terroir 1996 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Eléments importants d’une méthodologie de caractérisation des facteurs naturels du terroir, en relation avec la réponse de la vigne à travers le vin

Eléments importants d’une méthodologie de caractérisation des facteurs naturels du terroir, en relation avec la réponse de la vigne à travers le vin

Abstract

The French viticultural appellation areas are the result of an empirical, historical and evolutionary selection which, generally, has consecrated a match between natural factors, grape varieties and viti-vinicultural practices. The notion of terroir is the main basis of the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée in viticulture. It is based on the one hand on privileged natural factors and on the other hand on the know-how of the winegrowers; the whole allowing the production of a wine endowed with an authenticity and a sensory typicity. Wine-growing practices evolve according to progress in viticulture and oenology, while the natural factors of the terroir are much more stable, with the exception of the vintage. They therefore represent a fundamental pillar of the identity of an appellation vineyard. Faced with a wine market that is globalizing and an evolution of the consumer, the “terroir” factor takes on a new dimension, becoming an important commercial vector for many vineyards.

Scientific approaches to this theme have been relatively limited, due to the complexity of the problem concerning the variables to be studied, their chain of influence and the overall response of the vine to the terroir, through wine (Riou et al., 1995 ). An AOC most often applies to a wine-growing region whose surface area is sufficient for the expression, in most cases, of a large-scale spatial diversity of the natural environment (terroir units) which can lead to significant differences in the kind of wine..

An economic valuation of this factor of production therefore requires a method that can easily reveal and identify the units of terroir of a region, but also give them a spatial dimension, to allow a concrete use by the winegrowers, at the level of wine and agro-viticultural techniques.

DOI:

Publication date: March 25, 2022

Type: Poster

Issue: Terroir 1996

Authors

R. MORLAT

I.N.R.A. U.R.V.V.
42, rue Georges Morel. 49071 Angers. France

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 1996

Citation

Related articles…

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.

Contribution du potentiel glycosidique à l’arôme des vins de Grenache noir et Syrah en Vallée du Rhône

Grenache Noir and Syrah are the predominant grape varieties in the French Rhone valley vineyard, and produce wines with well differentiated aromatic notes. This study aimed at investigating the contribution of glycoconjugated precursors to these aromatic specificities, through their analytical profiles and the sensory influence of the odorant compounds they release during wine aging. The aglycones released by enzymatic hydrolysis of glycosidic extracts

Partitioning of seasonal above‐ground biomass of four vineyard-grown varieties: development of a modelling framework to infer temperature-rate response functions

Aims: Forecasting the biomass allocation among source and sinks organs is crucial to better understand how grapevines control the distribution of acquired resources and has a great meaning in term of making decisions about agricultural practices in vineyards. Modelling plant growth and development is one of prediction approaches that play this role when it concerns growth rates in response to variation in environmental conditions

Late winter pruning induces a maturity delay under temperature-increased conditions in cv. Merlot from Chile

Chile is considered vulnerable to climate change; and these phenomena affect several mechanisms in the grape physiology and quality. The global temperature increase affects sugar contents, organic acids, and phenolic compounds in grapes, producing an imbalance maturity. In this sense, an alternative to reduce the impact is to perform pruning after vine budburst, known as “Late Pruning” (LP).

SENSORY EVALUATION OF WINE AROMA: SHOULD COLOR-DRIVEN DESCRIPTORS BE USED?

The vocabulary used to describe wine aroma is commonly organized according to color, raising the question of whether they reflect the reality of olfactory perception. Previous studies have assumed this convention of color-aroma matching, and have investigated color’s influence on the perception of aroma only in dyed white wine or in red wine from particular places of origin. Here 48 white and red varietal wines from around the world were evaluated in black glasses then in clear glasses by a panel of wine experts, who gave intensity ratings for aroma attributes commonly used by wine professionals. In black glasses, aromas conventionally associated with white wine were perceived in the red wines, and vice versa.