Outline for the définition of “Terroirs Viticoles application to the area of El AIjarafe (Seville, Spain)

Viticulture is a major contributor to the antagonism of positive reputation and negative environmental impacts of agriculture. Vine contributes to structure landscape in the world, resulting, for example, in the delimitation of protected designations of origin (PDO). PDO vine is currently subject to the double challenge of sustainability and climate change adaptation. As vine is very sensitive to diseases and pests, vine requires a high use of pesticides to achieve its quality and yield goals. This high need for pesticides is the most important negative impact of environmental components.

Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG is a reinforced dry red wine produced in the mountain area of Valtellina alpine valley (North Italy), using ‘Nebbiolo’ grapes that undergo a withering process. This process impacts on the grape composition due to a sugar concentration and changes in secondary metabolism influencing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polyphenols.

Polyphenols are secondary metabolite widely distributed in plant kingdom such as in fruits, in grapes and in wine. During the winemaking process, polyphenols are extract from the skin and seed of the berries. Fining is an important winemaking step just before bottling which has an impact on wine stabilization and clarification. Most the time, fining agent are animal or vegetal protein while some of them can be synthetic polymer like PVPP or natural origin like bentonite.

The separation of different grape juice press fractions is an important step in the production of sparkling base wines. A complete press cycle for this style of wine is a series of pressure increases (squeezes) resulting in variations in juice composition during the press cycle. After alcoholic fermentation, wines obtained from grape juices also exhibit strong differences for numerous characteristics. Nevertheless, there is no statistical study of the impact of the press cycle on grape juices and wine colour/composition. So, the aim of this study (vintage 2018) was to investigate the changes in composition and colour parameters of Pinot noir and Pinot meunier grapes juices, as well as their corresponding wines, during the pressing cycle.

Viticulture is facing two major challenges – climate change and agroecological transition. The soil plays a pivotal role in these transition processes. Therefore, soil quality and adequate soil management are key levers for an ecologically and economically sustainable viticulture. Over the last 15 years, numerous studies evidenced strong effects of viticultural practices on the soil physical, chemical and biological quality. However, to date a global analysis providing a comprehensive overview of the ecological impacts of viticultural practices on soil biological quality is missing.