Can the use of rootstocks enhance terroir?

Dans les Charentes, en réponse à une crise de production du vignoble destiné à la production de Cognac, un plan de diversification viticole pour des vins de pays de qualité est mis en place. Il nécessite une connaissance des sols et de leurs caractéristiques viticoles pour orienter le choix des types de vins et adapter l’itinéraire technique de production.

The acquisition of wine expertise is a multi-faceted and multisensory process with implications for sensory perception, attention, memory, and language production. With the prevalence of the predictive model of brain functioning, one area of burgeoning research interest involves wine mental imagery, since the brain relies on imagined experiences to build predictions for the future. Recent evidence has shown that, for instance, those with higher imagery vividness are more susceptible to wine advertising. However, little is known about the association between mental imagery and other associated cognitive processes, such as the ability to produce words that describe such imagery. 

Un programme de recherche concernant les facteurs naturels et humains des terroirs viticoles a été développé dans le vignoble A.O.C. de l’Anjou, sur une surface d’environ 30.000 Ha

Tangible variation of sensory characteristics is often perceived in wine aged in similar barrels. This variation is mostly explained by differences in the wood chemical composition, and in the production of the barrels. Despite these facts, the literature concerning barrel-to-barrel variation and its effect on wine sensory and chemical characteristics is very scarce [1]. In this study, the barrel-to-barrel variation in barrel-aged wines was examined in respect of the most important phenolic compounds of oenological interest and chromatic characteristics, considering both the effects of the (individual) barrel and cooperage. A red wine was aged in 49 new medium-toasted oak (Quercus petraea) barrels, from four cooperages, for 12 months

Irrigation is an essential tool for grape production, especially where rainfall does not meet the optimal water requirements needed to achieve yield and quality targets. Increased evaporative demand of grapevines due to changing climate conditions, and a growing awareness for sustainable farming, require the improvement of irrigation techniques to maximize water use efficiency, i.e. using less water to achieve the same yields or the same water but larger yields. In this study, the performance of Cabernet Sauvignon vines was compared under three irrigation techniques: conventional aboveground drip irrigation, subsurface irrigation installed directly under the vine row, and partial rootzone drying in which two subsurface lines were buried in the middle of the two interrow spacings on each side of the vine row with irrigation alternated between the two lines based on soil moisture content.