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…

VINIoT – Precision viticulture service

The project VINIoT pursues the creation of a new technological vineyard monitoring service, which will allow companies in the wine sector in the SUDOE space to monitor plantations in real time and remotely at various levels of precision. The system is based on spectral images and an IoT architecture that allows assessing parameters of interest viticulture and the collection of data at a precise scale (level of grape, plant, plot or vineyard) will be designed. In France, three subjects were specifically developed: evaluation of maturity, of water stress, and detection of flavescence dorée. For the evaluation of maturity, it has been decided first to work at the berry scale in the laboratory, then at the bunch scale and finally in the vineyard. The acquisition of the spectral hyperstal image as well as the reference analyzes to measure the maturity, were carried out in the laboratory after harvesting the berries in a maturity monitoring context. This work focuses on a case study to predict sugar content of three different grape varieties: Syrah, Fer Servadou and Mauzac. A robust method called Roboost-PLSR, developed in the framework of this work (Courand et al., 2022), to improve prediction model performance was applied on spectra after the acquirement of hyperspectral images. Regarding the evaluation of water stress, to work with a significant variability in terms of water status, it has been worked first with potted plants under 2 different water regimes. The facilities have allowed the supervision of irrigation and micro-climatic conditions. The regression models on agronomic variables (stomatal conductance, water potential, …) are studied. To detect flavescence dorée, the experimental plan has consisted of work at leaf scale in the laboratory first, and then in the field. To detect the disease from hyper-spectral imaging, a combination of multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) and factorial discriminant analysis (FDA) was proposed. This strategy proved the potential towards the discrimination of healthy and infected leaves by flavescence dorée based on the use of hyperspectral images (Mas Garcia et al., 2021).

Assessing the climate change vulnerability of European winegrowing regions by combining exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity indicators

Winegrowing regions recognized as protected designations of origin (PDOs) are closely tied to well defined geographic locations with a specific set of pedoclimatic attributes and strictly regulated by legal specifications. However, climate change is increasingly threatening these regions by changing local conditions and altering winegrowing processes. The vulnerability to these changes is largely heterogenous across different winegrowing regions because it is determined by individual characteristics of each region, including the capacity to adapt to new climatic conditions and the sensitivity to climate change, which depend not only on natural, but also socioeconomic and legal factors. Accurate vulnerability assessments therefore need to combine information about adaptive capacity and climate change sensitivity with projected exposure to new climatic conditions. However, most existing studies focus on specific impacts neglecting important interactions between the different factors that determine climate change vulnerability. Here, we present the first comprehensive vulnerability assessment of European wine PDOs that spatially combines multiple indicators of adaptive capacity and climate change sensitivity with high-resolution climate projections. We found that the climate change vulnerability of PDO areas largely depends on the complex interactions between physical and socioeconomic factors. Homogenous topographic conditions and a narrow varietal spectrum increase climate change vulnerability, while the skills and education of farmers, together with a good economic situation, decrease their vulnerability. Assessments of climate change consequences therefore need to consider multiple variables as well as their interrelations to provide a comprehensive understanding of the expected impacts of climate change on European PDOs. Our results provide the first vulnerability assessment for European winegrowing regions at high spatiotemporal resolution that includes multiple factors related to climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity on the level of single winegrowing regions. They will therefore help to identify hot spots of climate change vulnerability among European PDOs and efficiently direct adaptation strategies.

Organic recycled mulches in sustainable viticulture: assessment of spontaneous plants communities and weed coverage

In recent years, developing more efficient and sustainable viticulture management has been essential due to the impact of climate change in semiarid regions. For this reason, the use of recycled organic mulching (ROM) in the vineyard has become an interesting strategy to cope with water stress, isolated soil from extreme temperatures and improving soil humidity, control the presence of weeds and therefore reduce the inputs of herbicides and improve soil fertility. This work aimed to analyse the effect of three different organic mulches [straw (S), grape pruning debris (GPD) and spent mushroom compost (SMC)] and two traditional soil management techniques [herbicide (H) and interrow (IN)] on weed coverage and the spontaneous plant communities’ presence. Data sampling was collected throughout the vine vegetative cycle of 2021 in La Rioja, Spain. The different soil management techniques had a clear effect on weed coverage and his development during the vine vegetative cycle. SMC and H were the treatments with the highest and the lowest coverage percentage, respectively. IN had a delayed weed emergence at the beginning of the vine vegetative cycle, but finally it reached maximum values nearby SMC. GPD and S had similar effects on weed emergence, reaching 25-30% of the maximum coverage values. A total of 29 herbaceous species were identified during the vegetative cycle, some of them very isolated and occasional. Principal component analysis (PCAs) showed a good association between spontaneous species and treatments, furthermore, specific species-treatment associations were found. Moreover, three clear groups of herbaceous communities were identified by cluster analysis. This study provides interesting information about the effect of different alternative soil management on herbaceous plant coverage and weed species communities which could contribute to making more sustainable viticulture.

Impact of geographical location on the phenolic profile of minority varieties grown in Spain. II: red grapevines

Because terroir and cultivar are drivers of wine quality, is essential to investigate theirs effects on polyphenolic profile before promoting the implantation of a red minority variety in a specific area. This work, included in MINORVIN project, focuses in the polyphenolic profile of 7 red grapevines minority varieties of Vitis vinifera L. (Morate, Sanguina, Santafe, Terriza Tinta Jeromo Tortozona Tinta) and Tempranillo) from six typical viticulture Spanish areas: Aragón (A1), Cataluña (A2), Castilla la Mancha (A3), Castilla –León (A4), Madrid (A5) and Navarra (A6) of 2020 season. Polyphenolic substances were extracted from grapes. 35 compounds were identified and quantified (mg subtance/kg fresh berry) by HPLC and grouped in anthocyanins (ANT) flavanols (FLAVA), flavonols (FLAVO), hydroxycinnamic (AH), benzoic (BA) acids and stilbenes (ST). Antioxidant activity (AA, mmol TE /g fresh berry) was determined by DPPH method. The results were submitted to a two-way ANOVA to investigate the influence of variety, area and their interaction for each polyphenolic family and cluster analysis was used to construct hierarchical dendrograms, searching the natural groupings among the samples. Sanguina (A3) had the most of total polyphenols while Tempranillo (A5) those of ANT. Sanguina (A2) and (A3) reached the highest values of FLAVO, FLAVA and AA. These two last samples had also the maximum of AA. The effect cultivar and area were significant for all polyphenolic families analyzed. A high variability due to variety (>50%) was observed in FLAVA and the maximum value of variability due to growing area was detected in AA (86.41%), ANT and FLAVO (51%); the interaction variety*zone was significant only for ANT, FLAVO, EST and AA. Finally, dendrograms presented five cluster: i) Sanguina (A2); ii) Sanguina (A3); iii) Tempranillo (A5); iv) Tempranillo (A3); Terriza (A3,A5), Morate (A5,A6); v) Santafé (A1,A6); Tortozona tinta (A1,A3,A6); Tinta Jeromo (A3,A4).

An analytical framework to site-specifically study climate influence on grapevine involving the functional and Bayesian exploration of farm data time series synchronized using an eGDD thermal index

Climate influence on grapevine physiology is prevalent and this influence is only expected to increase with climate change. Although governed by a general determinism, climate influence on grapevine physiology may present variations according to the terroir. In addition, these site-specific differences are likely to be enhanced when climate influence is studied using farm data. Indeed, farm data integrate additional sources of variation such as a varying representativity of the conditions actually experienced in the field. Nevertheless, there is a real challenge in valuing farm data to enable grape growers to understand their own terroir and consequently adapt their practices to the local conditions. In such a context, this article proposes a framework to site-specifically study climate influence on grapevine physiology using farm data. It focuses on improving the analysis of time series of weather data. The analytical framework includes the synchronization of time series using site-specific thermal indices computed with an original method called Extended Growing Degree Days (eGDD). Synchronized time series are then analyzed using a Bayesian functional Linear regression with Sparse Steps functions (BLiSS) in order to detect site-specific periods of strong climate influence on yield development. The article focuses on temperature and rain influence on grape yield development as a case study. It uses data from three commercial vineyards respectively situated in the Bordeaux region (France), California (USA) and Israel. For all vineyards, common periods of climate influence on yield development were found. They corresponded to already known periods, for example around veraison of the year before harvest. However, the periods differed in their precise timing (e.g. before, around or after veraison), duration and correlation direction with yield. Other periods were found for only one or two vineyards and/or were not referred to in literature, for example during the winter before harvest.