Towards adaptation to climate change in Rioja: Quality evaluation of wines obtained from Grenache x Tempranillo selections

In recent years, consumer demand for products without chemical additives increased, becoming a priority for the wine sector. SO₂ is widely used for its multiple properties including antiseptics, antioxidants and antioxidasics and the strategy of bioprotection in winemaking represents now an alternative to this chemical additive. In oenology, results have highlighted the interest of bioprotection to limit the development of microorganisms like Hanseniaspora uvarum and thus reduce the doses of sulphite. Indeed, this species is considered because of its acetic acid and methyl butyl acetate production, the latter can cover the varietal character of wines.

The concept of terroir is defined by a set of natural and human factors. On the slopy vineyards of the Burgundian « Côte », the « Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) » spread out according to the slope in their order of quality : « AOC Grand Cru » at the top, « AOC Premier Cru » and « AOC Village » and « Bourgogne » on the piemont. In order to correlate the hierarchy of the vintages with the evolution of the topographic and pedological criteria, two toposequences were studied, in Gevrey Chambertin (« Côte de Nuits ») and Aloxe Corton (« Côte de Beaune »).

Vineyard yield forecasting is a key issue for vintage scheduling and optimization of winemaking operations. High errors in yield forecasting can be found in the wine industry, mainly due to the high spatial variability in vineyards, strong dependency on historical yield data, insufficient use of agroclimatic data and inadequate sampling methods

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is important for grape growth and the quality of wine. It is essential to address the mismatch between N application and wine composition. Cabernet Gernischt (Vitis vinifera L.), as one of the main wine-grape cultivars in China, was introduced to Yantai wine region in 1892. This grape cultivar is traditionally used for quality dry red wine with fruit, spices aroma, ruby red and full-bodied wines. In order to regulate vine growth and improve grape and wine quality, Cabernet Gernischt grapevines were subjected to decreased levels of N treatments, compared to normal N supply treatment, during grape growing seasons of 2019 and 2020.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of environmental hazards (e.g., prolonged drought), and even non-extreme climate events (e.g., a period of slightly warmer temperatures) can lead to extreme impacts when they occur simultaneously with other (non-extreme) events.