Understanding and managing wine production from different terroirs

This paper summarises a national survey of the geological setting of vineyards in New Zealand. We also provide an overview of climate, slope, aspect and varietals planted in New Zealand vineyards as a whole and for some individual regions.

The ongoing climate change implies an increasing mean air temperature, which is signified by weather extremes or sudden changes between drought and local heavy rainfalls. These changing conditions are especially challenging for the established grapevine varieties growing under cool climate conditions due to an increased risk for fungal diseases like downy mildew (DM) and Botrytis bunch rot (BBR) as well as for grape sunburn. To meet that demand, the scope of most grapevine breeding programs is the selection of mildew fungus-resistant and climatic adapted grapevines with balanced, healthy yield and outstanding wine quality.

During alcoholic fermentation and wine aging, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) can degrade into 2-aminoacetophenone (AAP). The presence of reasonable amount of AAP in wines is regarded as the main cause of untypical ageing

The main scope of this research has been to investigate what values are attributed to the concept of “sustainability” by the wine producers of two different wine territories of Piedmont; the terroir of the Barolo DOCG and the the terroir of the Gavi DOCG. The research wants to emphasize how much the characteristic elements of each terroir influence the perception of the concept of sustainability among producers.

In the current context of market competition and consumption evolution, it is necessary to produce wines of a genuine typicity. The Terroir represents an unique and irreproducible inheritance that can be valorized through the origin and the sensory characteristics of the wines.