Keg wine on tap: a sustainability-oriented innovation

The recovery of ancestral or minority vine varieties has been gaining great interest in recent years, among other reasons because it is likely that some of these varieties, due to the fact that they are found in relict areas, have a greater potential for adaptation to external factors (biotic or abiotic) and can minimize the effects that climate change is causing in viticulture. Varieties that can be grown at altitude are currently being sought to combat rising temperatures and prolonged extreme drought conditions. In Catalonia, the Pyrenean expansion of vineyard cultivation is documented from the 10th century and has been related to the “small climatic optimum” (9th-12th centuries) and also to seigniorial power.[1] But different adverse climatic periods and the arrival of Phylloxera by the late 19th century made many of these crops disappear.[2]

Downy mildew is one of the most important grapevine diseases, caused by the Oomycete Plasmopara viticola. The management of the disease in organic agriculture can require up to 15 copper applications per year. However, copper accumulates in the soil, is phytotoxic and is toxic for organisms living in the soil, its use has been restricted in European Union to maximum 28 kg in 7 years. Therefore, testing of alternatives with equal effectiveness is desirable. Among those, the natural biopolymer chitosan, obtained from crab shells, proved to be effective toward downy mildew in plot experiments. The aim of our trials was to extend chitosan applications in large scale experiments in different years, cultivars and environmental conditions.

La région de production de la Gambellara et Recioto di Gambellara DOC (variété Garganega), tout en n’intéressant qu’une surface limitée, présente une certaine variabilité de milieu due à la morphologie du territoire (colline et plaine), à l’état actuel des sols et aux variations climatiques entre les différents sites. Pour les années 2001, 2002

Fungus-Resistant Grape (FRG) varieties represent a promising approach to address the challenges of climate change and sustainability in viticulture.

The Languedoc-Roussillon wineries are facing a decline in wine yields particularly PGI yields due to many factors. Climate change is just ones, but is expected to increase in the future. There is also structurally a large heterogeneity of yield profiles among terroirs, varieties and strategies. This work investigates the link between yield, competitiveness and resilience to explore how resilient winegrowers have been in the recent past. To this end two approaches have been combined; (i) an accountancy database analysis at estate scale and (ii) municipality level competitiveness analysis. A new resilience indicator that characterizes the capacity of an estate to absorb yield variation is also defined. The FADN database between 2000 and 2018 of ex-Languedoc-Roussillon (France) and other data are used to analyse the current situation and the past evolution of competitiveness and resilience by type of estate (type of farm: PGI and/or PDO & type of commercialization: bulk and/or bottles). The net margin, which defines competitiveness, is not correlated to yield for all types but depends on the type of commercialization and the level of specialisation. The resilience indicator shows that the net margin of estates specialized in PGI is particularly sensitive to yield declines. We also show that price evolutions seem to compensate the effect of yield losses for the majority of types. Municipality scale analysis shows the links between local pedoclimate, yield, commercialization strategies and price. Overlapping a PDO with a PGI does not always increase a municipality’s PGI competitiveness. It is difficult to make links between causes and effects due to the complexity of the wine production system. Production diversification may be a solution. Resorting to the two level of analysis helps resolving the data gap that is necessary to explore the links between yield and economic performance of the wine estates in the long term.