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…

Bioclimatic shifts and land use options for Viticulture in Portugal

Land use, plays a relevant role in the climatic system. It endows means for agriculture practices thus contributing to the food supply. Since climate and land are closely intertwined through multiple interface processes, climate change may lead to significant impacts in land use. In this study, 1-km observational gridded datasets are used to assess changes in the Köppen–Geiger and Worldwide Bioclimatic (WBCS)

The impact of leaf canopy management on eco-physiology, wood chemical properties and microbial communities in root, trunk and cordon of Riesling grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.)

In the last decades, climate change required already adaptation of vineyard management. Increase in temperature and unexpected weather events cause changes in all phenological stages requiring new management tools. For example, defoliation can be a useful tool to reduce the sugar content in the berries creating differences in the wine profiles. In a ten-year field experiment using Riesling (Vitis vinifera L, planted 1986, Geisenheim, Germany), various mechanical defoliation strategies and different intensities were trialed until 2016 before the vineyard was uprooted. Wood was sampled from the plant compartments root, trunk, cordon and shoot for analyses of physicochemical properties (e.g. lignin and element content, pH, diameter), nonstructural carbohydrates and the microbial communities. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of reduced canopy leaf area on the sink-source allocation into different compartments and potential changes of the fungal and prokaryotic wood-inhabiting community using a metabarcoding approach. Severe summer pruning (SSP) of the canopy and mechanical defoliation (MDC) above the bunch zone decreased the leaf area by 50% compared to control (C). SSP reduced the photosynthetic capacity, which resulted in an altered source-sink allocation and carbohydrate storage. With lower leaf area, less carbohydrates are allocated. This for example resulted in a decreased trunk diameter. Further, it affected the composition of the grapevine wood microbiota. SSP and MDC management changed significantly the prokaryotic community composition in wood of the root samples, but had no effect in other compartments. In general, this study found strong compartment and less management effects of the microbial community composition and associated physicochemical properties. The highest microbial diversities were identified in the wood of the trunk, and several species were recorded the first time in grapevine.

Upscaling the integrated terroir zoning through digital soil mapping: a case study in the Designation of Origin Campo de Borja

homogeneous zones by intersecting several partial zonings of major factors that influence vineyard growth. Each of them follows specific process from their corresponding disciplines. Soil zoning specifically refers to a Soil Resource Inventory map that has traditionally been generated by conventional soil mapping methods. These methods have shortcomings in reaching fine cartographic and categorical details and involve significant expenses, which undermines their applicability. A new framework named Digital Soil Mapping has introduced quantitative models by statistical techniques to establish soil-landscape relationships and is able to provide intensive scale cartography.

In the present study, a microzoning at 1:10.000 scale is generated from an initial zoning, where the conventional soil map with polytaxic map units is replaced by a new one from digital techniques that disaggregates them. The comparison between the zonings considers a quantitative evaluation of capability for each Homogeneous Terroir Unit by means of the Viticultural Quality Index and its categorization based on its distribution by map. The spatial intersection of both maps gives rise to a confusion matrix in which the flows of class variations after the substitution are assessed.

The results show a five-fold increase in the number of Homogeneous Terroir Units identified and a larger differentiation among them, evidenced by a wider range in the capability index distribution. Both elements are accompanied by an increase in the detection of areas of higher potential within previously undervalued uniform zones.These features are a direct effect of the improvements brought by Digital Soil Mapping techniques and would verify the advantages of their implementation in the Integrated Terroir zoning. Eventually, such new highly detailed terroir units would benefit precision viticulture and sustainable management practices.

Soil quality in Beaujolais vineyard. Importance of pedology and cultural practices

A pedological study was carried out from 2009 to 2017 in Beaujolais vineyard, to improve physical and chemical knowledge of soils. It was completed in 2016 and 2017 by the current study, dealing with microbial aspects, in order to build a reference frame for improved advice in soil management. Microbial biomass was measured on representative plots of the six most common soil types identified in Beaujolais and, for each soil type, on plots with different levels of the main impacting parameters: total organic carbon, pH, cation exchange capacity, extractable copper. A total of 59 soil samples were collected. Confirming the results of various trials carried out in Beaujolais over the past 20 years, the results of the present study showed that the soils were still alive, but exhibited a large variability of biological parameters, which appeared dependant on both pedological and anthropic factors. Therefore, a good interpretation of biological parameters and advice for vine growers must rely on a pedologically-based referential with differentiated main driving factors. For example, the control of pH is of primary importance in granitic soils and in no way organic matter addition can improve soil quality if pH is too low. Conversely, in calcareous soils, biological parameters are more directly affected by direct or indirect (cover crops for example) inputs of organic matter. The use of biological parameters, such as microbial biomass, is of great potential value to improve advice on agro-viticultural practices (soil management, fertilization, liming, etc.), basis of a sustainable wine production on fragile soils.

1H-NMR-based Metabolomics to assess the impact of soil type on the chemical composition of Mediterranean red wines

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different soil types on the chemical composition of Mediterranean red wines, through untargeted and targeted 1H-NMR metabolomics. One milliliter of raw wine was analyzed by means of a Bruker Avance II 400 spectrometer operating at 400.15 MHz. The spectra were recorded by applying the NOESYGPPS1D pulse sequency, to achieve water and ethanol signals suppression. No modification of the pH was performed to avoid any chemical alteration of the matrix. The generation of input variables for untargeted analysis was done via bucketing the spectra. The resulting dataset was preprocessed prior to perform unsupervised PCA, by means of MetaboAnalyst web-based tool suite. The identification of compounds for the targeted analysis was performed by comparison to pure compounds spectra by means of SMA plug-in of MNova 14.2.3 software. The dataset containing the concentrations (%) of identified compounds was subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to highlight significant differences among the wines. The untargeted analysis, carried out through the PCA, revealed a clear differentiation among the wines. The fragments of the spectra contributing mostly to the separation were attributed to flavonoids, aroma compounds and amino acids. The targeted analysis leaded to the identification of 68 compounds, whose concentrations were significant different among the wines. The results were related to soils physical-chemical analysis and showed that: 1) high concentrations of flavan-3-ols and flavonols are correlated with high clay content in soils; 2) high concentrations of anthocyanins, amino acids, and aroma compounds are correlated with neutral and moderately alkaline soil pH; 3) low concentrations of flavonoids and aroma compounds are correlated with high soil organic matter content and acidic pH. The 1H-NMR metabolomic analysis proved to be an excellent tool to discriminate between wines originating from grapes grown on different soil types and revealed that soils in the Mediterranean area exert a strong impact on the chemical composition of the wines.