Terroir 2020 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Development of the geographic indication vale do São Francisco for tropical wines in Brazil

Development of the geographic indication vale do São Francisco for tropical wines in Brazil

Abstract

Aim: Geographical Indications-GI are commonly used to protect territorial products around the world, such as cheese and wine. This qualification is useful because it improves the producer’s organization, protects and valorizes the distinct origin and quality of the product, increases recognition and notoriety, and adds value for products. Tropical wines are mainly produced in Brazil, India, Thailand, Myanmar and Venezuela. In the 1980’s, Brazil started to produce tropical wines in the São Francisco Valley, where vines are pruned twice per year and grapes are harvested twice a year, due to the natural conditions – high annual average temperature, solar radiation, water availability for irrigation, and vineyard management, using phytoregulators. According to the plot scheduling, wineries can prune and harvest every day throughout the year. In this study, a Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) project was developed between 2013 and 2018. The objective was to produce a dossier that describes the climate and soil conditions, landscape, topography, agronomical and viticultural parameters, as well as the enological protocols used by all wineries, in Vale do São Francisco, a region producing tropical wines. The dossier will be submitted in 2020 by Vinhovasf, an Association of the wineries, to recognize Vale do São Francisco as a Geographical indication (GI) for tropical wines. This GI will include white, red, and also sparkling wines made from traditional varieties of Vitis vinifera L. to the region.

Methods and Results: The geographical area delimited by the GI, includes eight cities presenting similar climate conditions (33,000 km2 of total area). A characterization of the soils in the GI area, as well as the trellis systems of the vineyards, the rootstocks and varieties adapted and authorized, and the enological protocols adopted for winemaking was made. Grape composition and the physicochemical and sensorial parameters of the wines were also characterized.

Conclusions:

A dossier has been developed with all the information needed to submit a request for Vale do São Francisco, located in northeastern Brazil to become a GI for still and sparkling tropical wines.

Significance and Impact of the Study: It will be the first GI for tropical wines in the world, using a similar structural model adopted by the European Union. It is expected that this will bring benefits to the wineries, as well as for all producers in general and for the working population involved in the grape and wine production chain in the region. The GI will improve the wine quality, recognition, reputation, valuation and promotion of all products, as it was observed for all GI obtained in the south of Brazil since 2002. Hence, the regional wine sector will improve its competitiveness, enotourism and attraction of new investments in the region.

DOI:

Publication date: March 25, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2020

Type : Video

Authors

Giuliano Elias Pereira1*, Jorge Tonietto1, Ivanira Falcade2, Carlos Alberto Flores3, Iêdo Bezerra Sá4, Tony Jarbas Ferreira Cunha4, Tatiana Ayako Taura4, Rosemary Hoff1, Mateus Rosas Ribeiro Filho5, Luciana Leite de Andrade Lima5, Celito Crivellaro Guerra1, Mauro Celso Zanus1, José Fernando da Silva Protas1, Magna Soelma Beserra de Moura4, João Ricardo Ferreira de Lima4, Francisco Macedo de Amorim6, Marcos dos Santos Lima6, Ricardo Henriques7, José Gualberto de Freitas Almeida8

1Embrapa Grape & Wine, Zip Code 95.701-008, Bento Gonçalves-RS, Brazil
2Universidade de Caxias do Sul-UCS, Zip Code 95.070-560, Caxias do Sul-RS, Brazil
3Embrapa Temperate Agriculture, Zip Code 96.010-971, Pelotas-RS, Brazil
4Embrapa Semi-Arid Region, Zip Code 56.302-970, Petrolina-PE, Brazil
5Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco-UFRPE, Zip Code 52.171-900, Recife-PE, Brazil
6Instituto Federal do Sertão Pernambucano, Zip Code 56.300-000, Petrolina-PE, Brazil
7Vitivinícola Santa Maria/Global Wines, Zip Code 56.395-000, Lagoa Grande-PE, Brazil
8Vinícola do Vale do São Francisco/Vinhovasf, Zip Code 56.380-000, Santa Maria da Boa Vista-PE, Brazil

Contact the author

Keywords

Vitis vinifera L, grape, wine, quality, typicality

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2020

Citation

Related articles…

Adapting the vineyard to climate change in warm climate regions with cultural practices

Since the 1980s global regime shift, grape growers have been steadily adapting to a changing climate. These adaptations have preserved the region-climate-cultivar rapports that have established the global trade of wine with lucrative economic benefits since the middle of 17th century. The advent of using fractions of crop and actual evapotranspiration replacement in vineyards with the use of supplemental irrigation has furthered the adaptation of wine grape cultivation. The shift in trellis systems, as well as pruning methods from positioned shoot systems to sprawling canopies, as well as adapting the bearing surface from head-trained, cane-pruned to cordon-trained, spur-pruned systems have also aided in the adaptation of grapevine to warmer temperatures. In warm climates, the use of shade cloth or over-head shade films not only have aided in arresting the damage of heat waves, but also identified opportunities to reduce the evapotranspiration from vineyards, reducing environmental footprint of vineyard. Our increase in knowledge on how best to understand the response of grapevine to climate change was aided with the identification of solar radiation exposure biomarker that is now used for phenotyping cultivars in their adaptability to harsh environments. Using fruit-based metrics such as sugar-flavonoid relationships were shown to be better indicators of losses in berry integrity associated with a warming climate, rather than solely focusing on region-climate-cultivar rapports. The resilience of wine grape was further enhanced by exploitation of rootstock × scion combinations that can resist untoward droughts and warm temperatures by making more resilient grapevine combinations. Our understanding of soil-plant-atmosphere continuum in the vineyard has increased within the last 50 years in such a manner that growers are able to use no-till systems with the aid of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi inoculation with permanent cover cropping making the vineyard more resilient to droughts and heat waves. In premium wine grape regions viticulture has successfully adapted to a rapidly changing climate thus far, but berry based metrics are raising a concern that we may be approaching a tipping point.

VINIoT: Precision viticulture service for SMEs based on IoT sensors network

The main innovation in the VINIoT service is the joint use of two technologies that are currently used separately: vineyard monitoring using multispectral imaging and deployed terrain sensors. One part of the system is based on the development of artificial intelligence algorithms that are feed on the images of the multispectral camera and IoT sensors, high-level information on water stress, grape ripening status and the presence of diseases. In order to obtain algorithms to determine the state of ripening of the grapes and avoid losing information due to the diversity of the grape berries, it was decided to work along the first year 2020 at berry scale in the laboratory, during the second year at the cluster scale and on the last year at plot scale. Different varieties of white and red grapes were used; in the case of Galicia we worked with the white grape variety Treixadura and the red variety Mencía. During the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, multispectral images were taken in the visible and infrared range of: 1) sets of 100 grapes classifying them by means of densimetric baths, 2) individual bunches. The images taken with the laboratory analysis of the ripening stage were correlated. Technological maturity, pH, probable degree, malic acid content, tartaric acid content and parameters for assessing phenolic maturity, IPT, anthocyanin content were determined. It has been calculated for each single image the mean value of each spectral band (only taking into account the pixels of interest) and a correlation study of these values with laboratory data has been carried out. These studies are still provisional and it will be necessary to continue with them, jointly with the training of the machine learning algorithms. Processed data will allow to determine the sensitivity of the multispectral images and select bands of interest in maturation.

Assessment of climate change impacts on water needs and growing cycle on grapevine in three DOs of NE Spain

This study assessed the suitability of grapevine growing in three DOs (Empordà, Pla de Bages and Penedès) of Catalonia (NE Spain) over the 21st century. For this purpose, an estimation of water needs and agroclimatic and phenological indicators was made. Climate change impacts were estimated at 1 km pixel resolution using temperature and precipitation projections from several general circulation models (GCM) and two climate change scenarios: RCP 4.5 (stabilization scenario) and RCP 8.5 (worst-case scenario). Potential crop evapotranspiration (following FAO procedure) and a daily water balance considering soil water holding capacity were used to estimate actual evapotranspiration of vines and, finally, water needs. Dynamics would be similar in the three DOs studied although the magnitude of impact differs. Water needs would be 2 and 3 times greater (ranging from 0 to more than 1500 m3/ha) than current water needs at both climate change scenarios. Moreover, blooming date would advance from 3 to 6 weeks, harvest date from 1 to 2.5 months, resulting in growing cycles from 10 to 80 days shorter. It should also be noted that frost risk would decrease from 6 to 76%, the number of days with temperatures above 30ºC during ripening would rise from 48 to 500% and tropical nights (minimum temperature >20ºC) at ripening would increase from 28 to 150%, depending on the scenario and the DOs. The impacts of climate change in the three DOs could result in significant limitations for grapevine cultivation and wine production if adaptive strategies are not applied. This result could serve as a basis for the design of specific and particular adaptation strategies to improve and maintain vineyards in the DOs studied and could be extrapolated to similar DOs and regions.

Effect of partial net shading on the temperature and radiation in the grapevine canopy, consequences on the grape quality of cv. Gros Manseng in PDO Pacherenc-du-vic-Bilh

As elsewhere, southwestern France vineyards face more recurrent summer heat waves these last years. Among the possibilities of adaptation to this climate changing parameter, the use of net shading is a technique that allow for limiting canopy exposure to radiations. In this trial, we tested net shading installed on one face of the canopy, on a north-south row-oriented plot of cv. Gros Manseng trained on VSP system in the PDO Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh. The purpose was to characterize the effects on the ambient canopy temperatures and radiations during the season and to observe the consequences on the composition of grapes and wines. Two sorts of net were used with two levels of obstruction (50% and 75%) of the photosynthesis active radiation (PAR). They have been installed on the west side of the canopy and compared to a netless control. Temperature and PAR sensors registered hourly data during the season. On specific summer day (hot and sunny) manual measurements took also place on bunches (temperature) and in different spots of the canopy (PAR). The results showed that, on clear days, the radiation is lowered by the shade nets respecting the supplier criteria. The effects on the ambient canopy temperature were inconstant on this plot when we observed the data from the global period of shading between fruit set and harvest. However, during hot days (>30°C), the temperature in the canopy was reduced during afternoon and the temperature of the bunch surface was reduced as well comparing to the control. A decrease of the maturity parameters of the berries, sugar and acidity, was also observed. Concerning the wine aromatic potential, no differences clearly appeared.

Effects of graft quality on growth and grapevine-water relations

Climate change is challenging viticulture worldwide compromising its sustainability due to warmer temperatures and the increased frequency of extreme events. Grafting Vitis vinifera L.