The characteristics of strong territorial brands: the case of Champagne

Nitrogen (N2) is critical in grape berries, especially in organic wine making. After intake, N2 follows various metabolic and allocation routes and, from veraison, partly reallocates into berries. Water deficit affects the N2 nutrition due to a poor diffusion in soil solution and vascular mobilisation. Also, affects photosynthesis and the energy needed for metabolism, whose extent would depend on the stomatal sensitivity of the plant. We have assessed the effect of a moderate water deficit from pea size, in 3 years old field grown potted plants of Chardonnay (CH) and Cabernet Sauvignon (CS), differing in stomatal sensitivity, on the N2 status of plant parts. Water deficit reduced photosynthesis, leaf area and fresh and dry plant mass along the season, but up to a higher extent in CS.

There is an increasing need in agriculture to adopt site-specific management (precision farming) because of economic and environmental pressures. Geophysical on-the-go sensors, such as the ARP (Automatic Resistivity Profiling) system, can effectively support soil survey by optimizing sampling density according to the spatial variability of apparent electrical resistivity (ER).

In the last decades the growers of the Portuguese Dão winegrowing region (center of Portugal) are experiencing changes in climate that are influencing either grape phenology berry health and ripening. Aiming to study the relationships between climate indices (CI), seasonal weather and grapevine phenology, in this work long-term climate and phenological data collected at the experimental vineyard of the Portuguese Dão research centre between 1958 and 2019 (61 years) for the red variety Touriga Nacional, was analyzed. The trends over time for the classical temperature-based indices (Growing Season Temperature – GST -, Growing Degree Days – GDD, Huglin Index – HI and Cool Night Index – CI) presented a significantly positive slope while the Dryness Index (DI) showed a negative trend over the last 61 years. Regarding grapevine phenology, an average advance of 4.5 days per decade in the harvest day was observed throughout the last 61 years. Consequently, the weather conditions during the ripening period have changed, showing an increasing trend over time in the average temperature (higher magnitude in the maximum than in the minimum temperature) and a decrease in the accumulated rainfall. A regression analysis showed that ~50% of harvest date variability over years was explained by the temperature-based indices variability. These observed effects of climate change on bioclimatic indices and corresponding anticipation of harvest date can still be considered advantageous for the Dão terroir as it allows to achieve an optimal berry ripening before the common equinox rains and, therefore, avoid the potential negative impacts of the rainfall on berry health and composition.

La superficie vitata della provincia di Modena é per circa il 70% interessata dai Lambruschi, famiglia di vitigni tipica dei territori pianeggianti emiliani. Tra questi, i più rappresentativi sono il Lambrusco di Sorbara, il Lambrusco salamino e il Lambrusco grasparossa che, unico esempio, predilige gli ambienti collinari della provincia. Nel quinquennio 2001-2005 la Provincia di Modena ed il C.R.P.V. hanno coordinato la zonazione viticola di tutto il territorio dei Lambruschi modenesi, i cui risultati hanno consentito di individuare, in ciascuna zona D.O.C., alcune Terre in cui cias.

This work was aimed at setting up a methodology to define and map the «Unités Terroir de Reconnaissance» (UTR), combining environmental information stored in a Soil Information System with experimental data coming from benchmark vineyards of Sangiovese vine.