Terroir 2016 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 The pedoclimatic conditions impact the yeast assimilable nitrogen concentration in the grapevine must and the valorisation of foliarnitrogen fertilisation

The pedoclimatic conditions impact the yeast assimilable nitrogen concentration in the grapevine must and the valorisation of foliarnitrogen fertilisation

Abstract

Aims: Agroscope investigated the efficiency of nitrogen fertilisation via foliar urea application at veraison with the aim of raising the yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) concentration in the musts. The observations were conducted over three vintages on two grapevine cultivars in several pedoclimatic conditions of the Leman wine region, Switzerland. Knowing that the YAN in the must plays a key role in wine quality, the aim of this study was finding the main parameters affecting the final YAN level in order to better control them.

Methods and results: Five plots of Doral (white grape, Chasselas x Chardonnay) and five plots of Gamaret (red grape, Gamay x Reichensteiner) were chosen over 80 km of vineyards. Pedologic profiles were realised. Vegetal materials, date of plantation and cultivation practices were kept constant for comparison purposes. Each plot was divided in two treatments of 60 vines each: a control treatment and a nitrogen fertilized treatment (20 kg N/ha as foliar urea applied at veraison). Phenological development, nitrogen status and grape maturation of vines were monitored. 50 kg of grapes from each treatment were harvested and then vinified separately using a standard protocol. YAN levels in musts were significantly enhanced by foliar-nitrogen fertilisation, but strong vintage, site and cultivar effects were pointed out: average YAN gain over 3 years was 69 ± 32 mg N/L in Doral must and 52 ± 27 mg N/L in Gamaret must. Some sites consistently presented higher gains (e.g. Doral at Villeneuve, +106 mg N/L). The bigger water holding capacity and the deeper effective root zone seemed to mainly enhance vine nitrogen status. No correlation could be established between initial leaf N content and the variation of YAN gain. YAN in must was the parameter that best explained the positive variations in wine sensory characteristics and, in the case of Doral only, was highly correlated to the overall appreciation of the wines (R2 = 0.70).

Significance and impact of the study: This work confirms that YAN level in must, in relation to climate and soil characteristics, contributes to the terroir effect on the wine quality. YAN concentration is clearly influenced by pedoclimatic conditions and cultivar. The impact of foliar-N supply is not always sufficient for a significant improvement of wine overall appreciation particularly for the cv. Gamaret. This observations may assist the development of sustainable practices to increase the YAN concentration in musts.

DOI:

Publication date: June 23, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2016

Type: Article

Authors

Thibaut VERDENAL (1), Vivian ZUFFEREY (1), Stéphane BURGOS (2), Johannes RÖSTI (1), Fabrice LORENZINI (3), Agnès DIENES-NAGY (3), Jorge SPANGENBERG (4), Katia GINDRO (1), Jean-Laurent SPRING (1) and Olivier VIRET (1)

(1) Institute for Plant Production Sciences, Agroscope, 1009 Pully, Switzerland
(2) Changins, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland
(3) Institute for Food Sciences, Agroscope, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland
(4) Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Contact the author

Keywords

terroir, yeast assimilable nitrogen YAN, leaf urea fertilisation, wine quality, terroir

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2016

Citation

Related articles…

LC-MS based metabolomics and target analysis to study the chemical evolution of wines stored under different redox conditions

Oxygen is a key player in oenology, since its effects can be a blessing, benefiting wine quality, or a curse causing irreversible damage.

Physical-chemical characterization of Moscatel de Setúbal fortified wines from different vintages

Moscatel de Setúbal is a Portuguese fortified wine with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO Setúbal), made from Moscatel de Setúbal grape variety (Muscat of Alexandria) [1].

Towards a European data basis based of advanced multi-isotopic signatures and artificial intelligence: the wine in blue project

Major and trace elements are essential for the development of grapes used for the wine. They are primarily originating from the soil. Some elements are also seldomly added during the wine making process. Therefore, the largest spectrum of major, trace and ultra-trace elements in the final wine product is a good signature of its geographical origin. In the frame of the European tracewindu, we have developed a very original multi-isotopic dilution method using triple quadrupole icp/ms.

Zonificación vitícola y aplicación a la D.O. Montilla-Moriles, usando como referencia la variedad ‘Pedro Ximenes’

Se señalaron 28 parcelas, en la zona de D.O. Montilla-Moriles, repartidas por toda la superficie de viñedo, de ellas 12 se localizan en las Zonas de calidad Superior, en los términos municipales de Montilla

Towards a regional mapping of vine water status based on crowdsourcing observations

Monitoring vine water status is a major challenge for vineyard management because it influences both yield and harvest quality. It is also a challenge at the territorial scale for identifying periods of high water restriction or zones regularly impacted by water stress. This information is of major importance for defining collective strategies, anticipating harvest logistic or applying for irrigation authorisation. At this spatial scale, existing tools and methods for monitoring vine water status are few and often require strong assumptions (e.g. water balance model). This paper proposes to consider a collaborative collection of observations by winegrowers and wine industry stakeholders (crowdsourcing) as an interesting alternative. Indeed, it allows the collection of a large number of field observations while pooling the collection effort. However, the feasibility of such a project and its interest in monitoring vine water status at regional scale has never been tested.

The objective of this article is to explore the possibility of making a regional map of vine water status based on crowdsourcing observations. It is based on the study of the free mobile application ApeX-Vigne, which allows the collection of observations about vine shoot growth. This information is easy to collect and can be considered, under certain conditions, as a proxy for vine water status. This article presents the first results obtained from the nearly 18,000 observations collected by winegrowers and wine industry stakeholders during 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons. It presents the vine shoot growth maps obtained at regional scale and their evolution over the three vintages studied. It also proposes an analysis of the factors that favoured the number of observations collected and those that favoured their quality. These results open up new perspectives for monitoring vine water status at a regional scale but above they provide references for other crowdsourcing projects in viticulture.