Terroir 2016 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 International Terroir Conferences 9 Terroir 2016 9 Climates of Wine Regions Worldwide 9 Mapping climate and bioclimatic indices at high-resolution in vineyard regions

Mapping climate and bioclimatic indices at high-resolution in vineyard regions

Abstract

Many of the world’s vineyard regions are located in regions of complex terrain, with the result there is significant local climate variation. The range of climatic conditions provides the opportunity for wine producers to readily adapt to the increasing influence of global warming on wine production by adjusting grape varieties and management practices to suit local environmental conditions. However, to allow this to happen, knowledge of fine scale variations in climate in vineyard regions needs to be improved. Our recent research has demonstrated that mesoscale atmospheric numerical models can be used to provide a good representation of the small-scale variations of climate in such regions of complex terrain. They are particularly useful for mapping mean daily temperature, which is the main variable used to derive bioclimatic indices of relevance to grapevine growth (such as the Huglin, Winkler, Grapevine Flowering Véraison and cool nights indices).

This paper provides examples of recent research in which the Weather Research and Forecasting climate model has been used to improve our understanding of climate variability at high spatial (1 km and less) and temporal (hourly) resolution within vineyard regions of different terrain complexity (e.g. in South Africa, New Zealand and France). Model performance is evaluated through comparison with automatic weather stations. The model output is used to investigate the spatial variability of derived bioclimatic indices and climatic hazards such as the occurrence of late frost, at high resolution across vineyard regions. Further analysis has also provided useful insights into grapevine response to spatial variability of climate through the prediction and mapping of dates of the key phenological stages of flowering and véraison.”.

DOI:

Publication date: June 22, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2016

Type: Article

Authors

Andrew Sturman (1), Peyman Zawar-Reza (1), Iman Soltanzadeh (2), Marwan Katurji (1), Valérie Bonnardot (3), Amber Parker (4), Mike Trought (5), Hervé Quénol (3), Renan Le Roux (3), Eila Gendig (6) and Tobias Schulmann (7)

(1) Centre for Atmospheric Research, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
(2) MetService, Wellington, New Zealand
(3) LETG-Rennes COSTEL, UMR 6554 CNRS, Université Rennes 2, Rennes, France
(4) Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
(5) Plant & Food Research Ltd., Marlborough Wine Research Centre, Blenheim, New Zealand
(6) Department of Conservation, Christchurch, New Zealand
(7) Catalyst, Christchurch, New Zealand

Contact the author

Keywords

Terroir, climate, bioclimatic indices, mapping, zoning

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2016

Citation

Related articles…

Vineyard management practices to reduce sugar content on ‘Monastrell’ grapes

Climate change is resulting in more dry and hot summers, accelerating grape ripening and increasing berry sugars concentration. This results in wines with a higher alcohol content, which has a negative impact on wine quality, as well as, on consumer health. Agronomic practices that minimize these effects on berry composition and, consequently, on wine quality must be defined. In this work, different management practices have been assessed on rainfed ‘Monastrell’ grapevines in Jumilla (Murcia, Spain) from 2021 to 2023 vintages. Mulching, shading, application of kaolin and different types of pruning were evaluated, among others field adaptation practices.

Read More

Evaluating Smoke Contaminants in Wine Using 13C-Labelled Barley as a Fuel Source

Wildfires are becoming more common in many areas of the world that are also associated with wine grape production, especially the Pacific northwest United States, Australia and even some areas of France.

Read More

NMR profiling of grape musts from some italian regions

With wine fraud, being a widespread problem [1], the need for more sophisticated and precise analytical methods of its detection remains ever persistent.

Read More

Enological evaluation of the attitude of the grapevine fumin to give varietal wines

Initiatives have been ongoing in recent years to safeguard biodiversity in the oenological sector via a process of enhancement of ancient varieties, under a pressure of a market strongly oriented towards production deriving from native vines of specific geographical zones. In that sense, Aosta Valley
(Italy) has raised the need to preserve and characterize its minority vine varieties which have the potentiality to give varietal wines. Fumin represents the 7% of the production of the region with 16 hectares of vineyards and 753 hectolitres of derived wine. Due to its large phenolic potential, strong astringency and deep colour, it has long been, and is still today, assembled or blended with other varieties as occurs, for example, for the Torrette.

Read More

Carbohydrate dynamics in Shiraz to determine seasonal allocation to the perennial and annual parts in respect to climatic challenges

The dynamic changes of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in grapevines during the growing season is driven by phenological events and environmental factors.

Read More