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…

Significance of factors making Riesling an iconic grape variety

Riesling is the iconic grape variety of Germany and accounts for 23% of the German viticulture acreage, which comprises 45% of the worldwide Riesling plantings. Riesling wines offer a wide array of styles from crisp sparkling wines to highly concentrated and sweet Trockenbeerenauslese or Icewines. However, its thin berry skin makes Riesling more vulnerable to detrimental environmental threats than other white wine varieties.  

Malolactic fermentation in wine production

What influence do these bacteria have on wines? What new bacteria are being studied to carry out this fermentation? Find below articles about malolactic fermentation published in our 3 media (OENO One, IVES Technical Reviews and IVES Conference Series). OENO One...

Metabolomics screening of Vitis sp. interspecific hybrids to select natural ingredients with cosmetic purposes

Introducing natural ingredients using green chemistry practices is a major challenge in cosmetics industry to follow the market trend. Among the plants of cosmetic interest, vine products show a remarkable diversity of natural substances with high potential for the cosmetic and dermatological sectors. To date, research focuses on well-known compounds like E-resveratrol and E-ε-viniferin,

WAC 2022: Abstracts are available on IVES Conference Series

In order to disseminate the scientific results presented during the WAC 2022 , the organizers have decided to share the abstracts of the oral communications and posters with Open Access on IVES Conference Series. The fifth edition of the International Conference...

Winemaking techniques and wine tasting methods at the end of the Middle Ages

Les pratiques de vinification et de dégustation du vin sont souvent perçues, à travers un discours marketing très puissant, sous l’angle d’une tradition millénaire qui perdure depuis le Moyen Âge. En Bourgogne, il est courant de rattacher les racines de ces pratiques à l’activité des institutions ecclésiastiques qui possédaient d