Prise en compte de la notion de terroir dans les AOC en France : Aspects Culturels

Remote sensing, using Near Infra Red wavelength, can characterize within-vineyard variability using vegetation index. Between 2007 and 2009, a study was led on the vineyards of a cooperative winery, in Fitou area (France) aiming at characterizing vineyard oenological potential. A vegetation index, green leaf cover, developed on crops (wheat, rice, corn…) was implemented on vineyards.

Cover crops are increasingly considered in Mediterranean climate vineyards due to a combination of agronomic and regulatory considerations. However, the soil under the vines themselves is typically kept free of vegetation by mechanical plowing or herbicide spraying. Taking into account that these practices may convey a number of non-favourable economic and environmental implications, and the fact that drip irrigation can ease the use of cover crops under the vines, the aim of this work was to evaluate the agronomic implications and the changes in soil physical and biological properties caused by an under-vine cover crop in a Mediterranean area.

Today, nearly one billion bottles of different sizes and capacities are aging in Champagne cellars while waiting to be put on the market. Among them, several tens of thousands of prestigious cuvees elaborated prior the 2000s are potentially concerned by prolonged aging on lees. However, when it comes to champagne tasting, dissolved CO₂ is a key compound responsible for the very much sought-after effer-vescence in glasses [1]. Yet, the slow decrease of dissolved CO₂ during prolonged aging of the most prestigious cuvees raises the issue of how long a champagne can age before it becomes unable to form CO₂ bubbles during tasting [2].

Knowledge of the nitrogen nutrition status of grapevines is essential for the sustainable management of their nutrition for the production of quality grapes. The measurement of the chlorophyll index is a rapid, non-destructive and relatively inexpensive method that provides a good approximation of the nitrogen nutrition status of the vine during the season. Interpretation thresholds are currently insufficient or non-existent for some chlorophyll meters. Ideally, they should be available for each variety and each phenological stage. In order to popularize the use of chlorophyll-meters, measurements were carried out at Agroscope in Switzerland to establish the correlation between the indices obtained by the devices N-tester and SPAD 502.

Le terroir peut être défini comme un écosystème dans lequel la vigne interagit avec le climat et le sol et dont la résultante est le vin.