Terroir 2016 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Irrigation and terroir: two opposite concepts? Point of view of international experts and french consumers

Irrigation and terroir: two opposite concepts? Point of view of international experts and french consumers

Abstract

At long term, qualitative irrigation seems to be the most systematic, if not the best, cultural practice for dealing with climate change and yield increases without decrease grape quality. Given this backdrop, the acceptance or irrigation within the frameworks of the terroir definition takes a central place. Consistently, the objective of this work is to evaluate this compatibility. Since irrigation is basically a social practice, it is important to understand it from a sociological point of view.

To meet this commitment, a qualitative questionnaire was implemented: standard personal interviews with no frequency (subject surveyed once) with a multi-topic research (omnibus research). 18 participants to the 19th GiESCO Meeting were selected as participants to the questionnaire. In a second instance, a quantitative questionnaire was evaluated: depth or intensive questionnaire with close-ended questions. In parallel, 512 French wine consumers participate to an Internet survey. This way, subject was approached from a twofold perspective: qualified researchers and French wine regular consumers.

Results show that surveyed expert seems to agree (in 63% of cases) with the idea of not changing a terroir by adding water under a controlled management of the water status in the vine. Level of agreement seems to be related with expert’s provenance and therefore expert’s observations in their local weather. Finally, concerning consumer’s approach, the level of implication in wine seems to play a role in accepting irrigation; consumers not implicated on wine don’t have a formed opinion whereas implicated consumers showed both; for and against a reasoned irrigation as a tool to deal against climate change. Moreover, within qualified consumers, age could serve for explaining the acceptance of irrigation: young (≤35 years old) and medium consumers (from 36 to 64 years old) were more likely to accept irrigation and a different grape variety to preserve wine quality.

Download the PDF

DOI:

Publication date: June 23, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2016

Type: Article

Authors

Santiago ALVAREZ GEI (1,2), Hernán OJEDA (1), Cécile COULON-LEROY (2)

(1) INRA, UE999 Pech Rouge, F-11430 Gruissan, France
(2) Unité GRAPPE, ESA, INRA, Comue UBL, 55 rue Rabelais BP 30748, F-49007 Angers, France

Keywords

Irrigation, Terroir, International experts, French consumers

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2016

Citation

Related articles…

PIWIs’ variation in drought response under semi-controlled conditions 

Grapevine interspecific hybrids (PIWIs, from German “pilzwiderstandsfähige Rebsorten” meaning fungus tolerant grapevine cultivars), offer a promising alternative to traditional cultivars in many wine regions due to their tolerance to certain fungal diseases. This makes them a potential solution for sustainable wine production, particularly under organic systems. Despite extensive research on certain agronomic traits and susceptibility to biotic diseases, such as powdery and downy mildews, the response of these cultivars to abiotic stressors, such as drought, remains unclear. Our study aims to investigate the eco-physiological traits of two commercial PIWI cultivars, Muscaris and Souvignier gris, at the leaf level to evaluate their response to drought stress.

Read More

Bio-based fertilisers from fruit and vegetable residues for improving soil fertility and vine status in degraded vineyards

The H2020 RUSTICA project aims to propose, demonstrate, and implement technical solutions to convert organic residues from fruit and vegetables into high-quality novel bio-based fertilisers (BBF).

Read More

High levels of copper and persistent synthetic pesticides in vineyard soils

Downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola), powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) and bunch rot (Botrytis cinerea) are the most prevalent fungal diseases in viticulture.

Read More

Accumulation of deleterious mutations in grapevine and its relationship with traits of interest for wine production and resilience

Deleterious mutations that severely reduce population fitness are rapidly removed from the gene pool by purifying selection. However, evolutionary drivers such as genetic drift brought about by demographic bottlenecks may comprise its efficacy by allowing deleterious mutations to accumulate, thereby limiting the adaptive potential of populations. Moreover, positive selection can hitchhike mildly deleterious mutations due to linkage caused by lack of recombination. Similarly, in the context of species domestication, artificial selection mimics these evolutionary processes, which can have undesirable consequences for production and resilience. In this study, we evaluated the extent of the accumulation of deleterious mutations and the magnitude of their effects (also known as genetic load) at the whole-genome scale for ca.

Read More

FERMENTATION POTENTIAL OF INDIGENOUS NON-SACCHAROMYCES YEASTS ISOLATED FROM MARAŠTINA GRAPES OF CROATIAN VINEYARDS

The interest in indigenous non-Saccharomyces yeast for use in wine production has increased in recent years because they contribute to the complex character of the wine. The aim of this work was to investigate the fermentation products of ten indigenous strains selected from a collection of native yeasts established at the Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation in 2021, previously isolated from Croatian Maraština grapes, belonging to Hypopichia pseudoburtonii, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Metschnikowia sinensis, Metschnikowia chrysoperlae, Lachancea thermotolerans, Pichia kluyveri, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Hanseniaspora guillermondii, Hanseniaspora pseudoguillermondii, and Starmerella apicola species, and compare it with commercial non-Saccharomyces and Saccharomyces strains.

Read More