Underpinning terroir with data: rethinking the zoning paradigm
Abstract
Terroir zoning has traditionally relied on a mixture of classical approaches to land classification and thematic mapping, coupled to various heuristics, ‘expert’ opinions and the whims of marketers and wine writers. Here, we show how, by using data-driven methods and focussing just on the land which supports grape production, rather than on all of the land within a winegrowing region, we might move towards a more robust terroir zoning. By using data to provide an improved understanding of terroir, such methods should also promote improved management of the entire wine value chain, offering quantitative indications of the impact of the biophysical characteristics of the places where grapes are grown on the chemical and sensory attributes of the wines derived from them.
Issue: Terclim 2022
Type: Article
Authors
¹CSIRO, Waite Campus, Adelaide, Australia
²E&J Gallo Winery, Modesto, California, USA
³Innovative Winegrowing, Blenheim, New Zealand
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Keywords
spatial analysis, precision viticulture, terroir zoning, sub-regionalisation