Terroir 2012 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 High resolution climate spatial analysis of European winegrowing regions

High resolution climate spatial analysis of European winegrowing regions

Abstract

Climate strongly affects the geographical distribution of grape varieties, grapevine cultivation techniques and wine organoleptic properties. The current study aims at comparing the climatic features of European winegrowing regions. A geodatabase of 260 wine producing areas within 18 countries of the European Community was first established by means of maps collected from various sources (e.g. atlases and national wine and vine services). Within the 247 of the 260 initially delimited regions, areas actually planted with vine were identified by means of the Corine Land Cover database, for a total of 6 million of hectares. Each of the 1 km resolution pixels of the WorldClim 1950-2000 monthly climatic database located within these planted areas were used to calculate agroclimatic indices. The Huglin index, the Cool night index and the Dryness index, as described by the Multicriteria Climatic Classification system, as well as a winter freeze risk index, a spring frost risk index and a heat stress index were calculated. The use of a clustering algorithm (CLARA) with each of these 1 km resolution gridded indices resulted in the identification of six climate types: (1) sub-humid temperate, (2) sub-humid cool with very cool nights and high spring frost risk, (3) moderately dry and temperate with cool nights, (4) dry and temperate warm with temperate nights, (5) sub-humid temperate with strong frost risks, and (6) very dry and hot, with cool nights climates. Each of the 247 winegrowing regions was classified according to the type of climate that covers the largest part of its territory. Despite the clustering, the type 4 climate still exhibits a large diversity of climatic characteristics. It is located mainly within winegrowing regions located close to the Mediterranean Sea. To our knowledge the current work is the largest spatial climate analysis of winegrowing regions that have been performed so far.

DOI:

Publication date: August 26, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2012

Type: Article

Authors

Benjamin BOIS (1), Aurélie BLAIS (1), Marco MORIONDO (2), Gregory V. JONES (3)

(1) Centre de Recherches de Climatologie, UMR 6282 Biogéosciences CNRS Université de Bourgogne, 6 boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France
(2) CNR-IBIMET via Caproni 8, 50145, FLORENCE, Italy
(3) Department of Environmental Studies, Southern Oregon University, 97520, 101A Taylor Hall, Ashland, OR, U.S.A

Contact the author

Keywords

Climate, Vitis vinifera, European viticulture, WorldClim, agroclimatic indices

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2012

Citation

Related articles…

Can different green manure fertilizations affect the vine balance and grape quality? First evidence of multi-year study

In the context of sustainable viticulture that implements organic practices to maintain soil fertility, green manuring plays a crucial role due to its ability to stock carbon and nitrogen in soil while supporting biodiversity.

Application of fluorescence spectroscopy with multivariate analysis for authentication of Shiraz wines from different regions

Aim: To investigate the possibility of utilising simultaneous measurements of absorbance-transmittance and fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (A-TEEM) combined with chemometrics, as a robust method that gives rapid results for classification of wines from different regions of South Australia according to their Geographical Indication (GI), and to gain insight into the effect of terroir on inter regional variation.

Effect of fertigation strategies to adapt PGI Côtes de Gascogne production to hot vintage

The development of fertigation could be a possible solution to adapt PGI Côtes de Gascogne (south-western France) wine production to climate change. The goal would be to limit the negative effects of water stress on yield performance expectation (around 15 tons per hectare) and to make the use of fertilizers more efficient. This study aimed to compare the effects of three strategies of water and minerals supply on grapes and wines qualities. Two fertigation practices were compared to a rainfed control which is the current standard of the local grape growing production. The fertilizers (nitrogen and potassium) were (i) fully brought by irrigation pipe during the season, (ii) partially brought by irrigation pipe and partially on the soil or (iii) fully brought on the soil at the beginning of the season for the non-irrigated control (local standard). The trial was run on cv. Colombard trained on spur pruned with vertical shoot positioning system on a sandy-silty-clay soil over the 2020 vintage which was particularly hot for the region. Moderate to strong water deficit appeared during the growing period of the berries and held on after veraison. Irrigation strategies allowed for maintaining grapevine without water deficit and being significantly different from the control water status. Grapevine with fully or partial fertigation strategies produced 25% more yield mainly due to the increase of the bunch weight. Also, the fully fertigation showed the best ratio between yield and maturity and brought 30% less of fertilizers (both nitrogen and potassium) than the two other strategies. Finally, the analysis of aromatic compounds in Colombard wines, varietal thiols family, showed the same level of concentrations for the 3 treatments, confirming that the yield performance did not impact the aromatic potential in this trial.

Ozone treatment: a solution to improve sanitary and physiological quality of vine plant

The vineyard world is faced to a lot of fungal diseases. Grapevine Trunk Diseases (GTD) are some of the major. After exhibiting chronical foliar symptoms, grapevines can die by apoplexy within only few days. A range species of fungi was described to be associated with the apparition of early symptoms of GTD. It is well known that ozone dissolved into water is a powerful disinfectant with no remanence. The main goal of this study was to test the efficiency of this process on different fungal species associated with GTD in vitro and in planta conditions.

Climat-roche-sol-fromage. Cartographie fonctionnelle du terroir. Exemple de l’A.O.C. Comté

La place prépondérante que prend le Massif Jurassien en Franche-Comté confère à la région un caractère montagneux qui a orienté l’agriculture vers l’élevage laitier. Cette vocation pastorale marquée et de rudes conditions climatiques sont à l’origine de la production, attestée depuis l’Antiquité, d’un fromage de réserve pour la longue période hivernale. Cette tradition fromagère, liée à des prairies naturelles, a perduré jusqu’à nos jours. La qualité et la spécificité du produit actuel, le fromage de Comté, ont été reconnues dès 1952 par l’attribution d’un label et dès 1958, par la reconnaissance d’un périmètre d’appellation d’origine contrôlée, l’A.O.C. Comté (fig. 1).