terclim by ICS banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 International Congress on Grapevine and Wine Sciences 9 2ICGWS-2023 9 Evaluation of terroir suitability for vine cultivation in new areas using geographic multi-criteria decision support

Evaluation of terroir suitability for vine cultivation in new areas using geographic multi-criteria decision support

Abstract

Based on historical vine cultivation, the recent development of wine production in Drama wine region (Greece) has led to vine cultivation expansion of white and red varieties. The current cultivation of 500 ha of vineyards is expected to increase in the coming years. Natural terroir units (NTU) have been designed recently to support the production of high quality wines in the region [1]. The aim of this work is to evaluate the relevancy of the proposed NTUs regarding their suitability to produce wines of specific sensorial identity, and to provide guidelines for correct site selection for the expanding wine industry of the region. The FAO Framework for Land Suitability Analysis was adapted to cover the main categories of input data: soil, climate, topography and other environmental properties [2]. The weights of each input data category have been developed with Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) based on interviews with the viticulturalists of the main wine producers. The geographic analysis was performed using the Agricultural Land Use Evaluation System (ALUES), which is based on the open-source statistical software R. The results reveal that the majority of the agricultural area is marginally to adequately suitable for the main white vine varieties currently cultivated, namely cv. Sauvignon blanc, with the exception of the cooler areas. On the contrary, red varieties (notably cv Cabernet Sauvignon) were  found to be more suitable to occupy the central part of the wine producing area. Nevertheless, it is possible to allocate white varieties to a wider range of sites with the adaptation of viticultural management.

Acknowledgements: The work presented is co‐financed by the ERDF and Greek national funds.

References:

1)  Karapetsas, N. et al, (2023). Delineating Natural Terroir Units in Wine Regions Using Geoinformatics. Agriculture, 13, 629, DOI:10.3390/agriculture13030629

2)  Bilas, G. et al., (2022). Land Suitability Analysis as a Tool for Evaluating Soil-Improving Cropping Systems. Land, 11, 2200, DOI:10.3390/land11122200

DOI:

Publication date: October 5, 2023

Issue: ICGWS 2023

Type: Article

Authors

Thomas Alexandridis1*, Nikolaos Karapetsas1, George Bilas1, Sefafeim Theocharis2, Stefanos Koundouras2

1 Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Spectroscopy and Geographical Information Systems, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
2 Laboratory of Viticulture, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece

Contact the author*

Keywords

DSS, land suitability analysis, geographic information systems

Tags

2ICGWS | ICGWS | ICGWS 2023 | IVES Conference Series

Citation

Related articles…

Polysaccharide families of lyophilized extracts obtained from unfermented varietal grape pomaces

The recovery of bioactive compounds from grape and wine by-products is currently an important objective for revaluation and sustainability. Grape pomace is one of the main by-products and is a rich source of some bioactive compounds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the polysaccharide (PS) composition of extracts obtained from pomaces of different white and red grape varieties of Castilla y León. Grape pomaces were obtained after the pressing in the winemaking process.

Read More

Yeast mannoprotein characterization and their effect on Oenococcus oeni and malolactic fermentation

Mannoproteins are released at the end of alcoholic fermentation due to yeast autolysis [1]. It has been described a positive effect of these molecules on lactic acid bacteria growth [2]. The main objective of this work was the characterization of different mannoproteins extracted from active dry yeast (ADY) and the assessment of their effect on Oenococcus oeni and malolactic fermentation (MLF).

Read More

is the overall ecological awarness among Spanish winemakers related to their attitudes towards natural wines?

The Agenda 2030 of the EU sets out the main guidelines for transitioning towards a resilient, green and safe economy. To this regard, the wine sector is experiencing an ecological transition in different ways such as increasing the production of ecological crops, or promoting the production of wines under more environmental-friendly and healthier (i.e., lower levels of SO2) products. These alternatives to conventional production are a smaller proportion of wines, in constant growth and demand, and follow alternative and minority practices, which range from sustainable to deeply philosophical thoughts. Among these methods there are organic, biodynamic and, more recently, natural wines.

Read More

Effect of irrigation in cover cropping vineyards

Cover cropping in vineyard is a sustainable and alternative soil management system to conventional tillage that is gaining more and more importance among winegrowers and is being promoted, among other organizations, by the European Union through the eco-schemes of the Common Agricultural Policy.
However, the use of cover crops in Mediterranean viticultural environments is conditioned, to a large extent, by the availability of irrigation water which, in a context of global warming like the one we are experiencing, must be adjusted to savings strategies, supplying to the vine only what it needs in each moment.

Read More

Predicting provenance and grapevine cultivar implementing machine learning on vineyard soil microbiome data: implications in grapevine breeding

The plant rhizosphere microbial communities are an essential component of plant microbiota, which is crucial for sustaining the production of healthy crops. The main drivers of the composition of such communities are the growing environment and the planted genotype. Recent viticulture studies focus on understanding the effects of these factors on soil microbial composition since microbial biodiversity is an important determinant of plant phenotype, and of wine’s organoleptic properties. Microbial biodiversity of different wine regions, for instance, is an important determinant of wine terroir.

Read More