Terroir 2016 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 The terroir of Pinot noir wine in the Willamette valley, Oregon – a broad analysis of vineyard soils, grape juice and wine chemistry

The terroir of Pinot noir wine in the Willamette valley, Oregon – a broad analysis of vineyard soils, grape juice and wine chemistry

Abstract

Wine-grapes in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, are grown on three major soil parent materials: volcanic, marine sediments, and loess/volcanic. This study examines differences in the soil properties and elemental chemistry of the soil parent materials at various vineyards to document their effect on wine chemistry. The physical characteristics of soils from all the three parent materials indicate: they are old (>50,000 years) based on their high clay content, low cation exchange capacity, red colors, and high Fe and Al content. In my study region, volcanic and marine sediment soils are more developed with slightly lower acidity than the loess/volcanic soils. A new finding for this region is the presence of pisolites (Fe/Mg concretions) in the volcanic and the loess/volcanic soils, but absent in the marine sediment soils. Volcanic soils have the highest P, S, Fe, Co, Mn, and V concentrations and the lowest As and Sr values.

Marine sediment soils have higher Cl and Sr and lower P, Co, Mn, Ba, and V concentrations than volcanic soils. Loess soils have the highest values of K and Mg and are similar to volcanic soils with higher P and V values and similar to marine sediment soils with higher Sr values. The main elements found to be significant in determining one parent material from another are V and Mn (volcanic soils), Mg and K (loess soils), and Sr (marine sediment or loess soils). Sr is slightly higher in grape juice and wine from vines grown on marine sediment parent material compared to volcanic and loess parent material, whereas Mn is higher in the juice and wine from grapes grown in volcanic parent material. P, S, Fe, Co, V, Cl, Ba, Mg, and K did not maintain their relative concentration levels from soil to grape juice to wine. The principal component analysis shows that soil and wine chemistry differs between parent material, but is inconclusive for grape juice chemistry.

Download the PDF

DOI:

Publication date: June 23, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2016

Type: Article

Authors

Kathryn Nora Barnard (1), Scott F. Burns (1)

(1) Department of Geology, Portland State University, 1825 SW Broadway Avenue, Portland, Oregon., USA

Contact the author

Keywords

Pinot Noir, ICP-MS/AES, particle size, cation exchange capacity, X-ray fluorescence, clay mineralogy, grape juice chemistry, wine chemistry, soil chemistry

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2016

Citation

Related articles…

Evaluation of the impact of different amelioration techniques on the chemical composition and sensory characteristics of smoke impacted wines

AIM: The increasing incidences of wildfires in wine grape growing regions pose a significant risk. Persistent exposure to smoke can compromise the quality and value of wine grapes and adversely affect wines made from smoke exposed grapes.

Read More

What metabolomics teaches us about wine shelf life

The metabolomics era started about 22 years ago, and wine was one of the first foodstuff subjects of analysis and investigation by this technique.

Read More

ENRICHMENT OF THE OENOLOGICAL MALDI-TOF/MS PROTEIN SPECTRA DATABASE FOR RELIABLE OENOLOGICAL YEAST AND BACTERIA IDENTIFICATION

The Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization–Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) technology is commonly used in food and medical sector to identify yeast or bacteria species isolated from a nutritive culture media. Since a decade, brewery and oenology industries have been attracted to this method which combines fast analysis times, reliability and low cost of analysis. Briefly, this method is based on the comparison of the MALDI-TOF/MS protein spectra of an isolated colony of yeast or bacteria with those contain in a manufacturer’s reference protein spectra database. Initiated in 2015, the creation of the first oenological mass spectra database has proved to be essential for increase quality of species identification.

Read More

Valorisation agroviticole de l’effet terroir par l’enherbement des sols

The studies developed by INRA and UV, in Angers, concern wine-growing areas and their optimized management, both from an agro-viticultural and oenological point of view. Previous work (Morlat, 1989) made it possible to give a scientific dimension to the concept of viticultural terroir and demonstrated the considerable influence of this production factor on the quality and typicity of wines (Asselin et al, 1992 ) . A methodology for the integrated characterization of terroirs, based on the “Basic Terroir Natural Unit” (considered as the smallest spatial unit of territory usable in practice, and in which the response of the vine is homogeneous), has been development (Riou et al , 1995).

Read More

Introducing heterogeneity measurements in terroir studies. Application in the região demarcada do douro (n portugal)

Terroir zoning studies have to manage the heterogeneity and complexity of the landscape properties and processes. The varying geology is one of the main landscape properties conditioning the spatial variability of terroirs.

Read More