Terroir 2020 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Unraveling vineyard site from vintage contributions: Elemental composition of site-specific Pinot noir wines across multiple vintages

Unraveling vineyard site from vintage contributions: Elemental composition of site-specific Pinot noir wines across multiple vintages

Abstract

Understanding vineyard site contribution to elemental composition of wines has, historically, been limited due to lack of continuity across multiple vintages, as well as lack of uniformity in scion clone and lack of controlled pilot-scale winemaking conditions.  We recently completed our fifth vintage, and have elemental composition characterizing wines from four vintages (2015–2018). The experimental design minimizes sources of potential variation by using a single scion clone of Pinot noir and by using automated 200 L fermentation vessels at the UC Davis Teaching and Research Winery, in which fermentations are highly controlled across vineyard replicates, vineyards, and vintages.  The work aims to begin to unravel vineyard site from vintage contributions in elemental composition of wines.   

Grape clusters were hand-harvested from vineyards which span a distance of more than 1400 km.  Eight American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) are represented in this work: Santa Rita Hills, Santa Maria Valley, Arroyo Seco, Carneros, Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, Anderson Valley and Willamette Valley.  Fruit was destemmed only and inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. Upon completion of inoculated MLF, wines were stored in stainless steel vessels until sampling for characterization.  Forty-seven elements were profiled in a mass range of 7 to 238 m/z by using inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).  

Thirty elements have been quantified in the wines from at least half of the sites by ICP-MS. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to characterize vineyards using only significant elements identified by an analysis of variance (ANOVA) measuring effects of vineyard.  Across multiple vintages, wines from some AVAs were consistently clustered by elemental composition profile, such as those within Santa Maria Valley and Arroyo Seco.  Other vineyard locations, however, were reproducibly more similar in elemental composition to sites in other AVAs than those within their AVA.  Differences in profiles within an AVA suggest that factors such as distinctive soil composition or conditions, or microclimate have an effect.  Overall, separation and clustering of wines by elemental composition appears consistent across vintages in this experiment. These results quantitatively demonstrate reproducibility and differentiation of chemical composition of wines across multiple vintages, which is an important component of terroir. Details continue to be unravelled in future work to elucidate consistency of elemental profile from sites across vintages, such as correlations with soil composition and site microclimate.

DOI:

Publication date: March 17, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2020

Type: Video

Authors

Maisa Lima, Desmon Hernandez, Ron Runnebaum*

University of California – Davis, Davis, United States

Contact the author

Keywords

Wine elemental composition, Pinot noir, American Viticultural Areas, terroir

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2020

Citation

Related articles…

Perception, liking and emotional response of tropical fruit aromas in Chardonnay wines

Tropical fruit aromas in wines are thought to be important to wine consumers, although there is little research to confirm this statement. With so many wine styles available, it has become important to understand the qualities that are desirable to consumers and how to achieve those qualities. Thiols and esters are compounds that have been found to cause tropical fruit aromas in chardonnay (ref). Fermentation temperature gradients and skin contact were found to increase these compounds using micro scale fermentations. This work aimed to scale up these fermentations/operations to determine if the desired tropical fruit aromas could still be achieved and if there is a perceivable difference in tropical fruit aromas, liking, and emotional response in the wines at the consumer level.

Electrochemical diversity of italian white wines

Analysis of phenolic compounds typically involve spectrophotometric methods as well as liquid chromatography combined with DAD, fluorimetric, or MS detection. However, the complexity of wine phenolic composition generated, in recent years, attention towards other analytical approaches, including those allowing rapid and inexpensive operations. Voltametric AIM Oxidation of white wine phenolics occurs at different stages during winemaking and storage and can have important implications for wine sensory quality. Phenolic compounds, in particular those with a ortho-diphenol moiety, are main target of oxidation in wine. Strategies for the methods are particularly suited for the analysis of oxidizable compounds such as phenolics. The redox-active species can be oxidized and reduced at the electrode, therefore, applications of electrochemistry have been developed both to quantify such species, and to probe wine maturation processes.3 The project on the diversity of Italian wines aims at collecting and analysing large-scale compositional dataset related to Italian white wines.

Comparative QTL mapping of phenology traits in three cross populations of grapevine

Long-term studies on grapevine phenology have clearly demonstrated that global warming is affecting phenological events, leading to an anticipation in their timing, and negatively impacting grape yield and berry quality. Therefore, dissecting the genetic determinants involved in the plant regulation of the phenological stages of budburst, flowering, veraison and ripening can improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms and support plant breeding programs and the advancement of vineyard management strategies.
We report here the results of a QTL mapping experiment conducted on three segregating populations obtained from the crossing of ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ and ‘Corvina’, ‘Corvina’ and the hybrid ‘Solaris’ and ‘Rhine Riesling’ and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’.

Carbon isotope labeling to detect source-sink relationships in grapevines upon drought stress and re-watering

Kinetics of carbon allocation in the different plant sinks (root-shoot-fruit) competing in drought stressed and rehydrated grapevines have been investigated.

Wine racking in the winery and the use of inerting gases

The O2 uptake in the different winemaking processes is generally considered to be negative for the sensory characteristics of white and rosé wines. Wine racking is a critical point of O2 uptake, as the large surface area of the wine exposed during this operation and the inability to maintain an effective inert gas blanket over it.
The objective was to study O2 uptake during the racking of a model wine without using inert gases and to compare it with the purging of the destination tank with different inert gases.