Terroir 2010 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Zonazione dell’area viticola doc durello

Zonazione dell’area viticola doc durello

Abstract

[English version below]

Il lavoro di zonazione riveste un ruolo importante per capire le potenzialità e la vocazionalità di una specifica area viticola. La viticoltura dovrebbe essere vista in funzione dell’obiettivo enologico che si vuole realizzare e quindi particolare importanza riveste il risultato delle vinificazioni delle uve provenienti dai vigneti delle diverse aree della zona di produzione oggetto d’indagine. La zonazione dell’area a DOC Monti Lessini Durello ha preso in esame la varietà “Durella”, vitigno autoctono del territorio, che rappresenta la maggior parte della produzione vitivinicola della zona. Durante il quadriennio 2002-2005 si sono effettuati i rilievi vegeto-produttivi e le vinificazioni delle uve di questa varietà provenienti dalle 15 aree individuate attraverso un’indagine podologica del territorio di coltivazione Monti Lessini Durello, che si estende su un’ampia superficie nelle province di Verona e Vicenza. Un aspetto innovativo di questo lavoro e di aver introdotto, sebbene solo per un’annata, la valutazione del potenziale enologico del vino anche attraverso il processo di spumantizzazione con il metodo classico. In questo modo si è potuto poi verificare, attraverso l’analisi sensoriale, non solo le peculiarità delle diverse zone ma anche la loro attitudine al processo di spumantizzazione, confrontando la valutazione dei vini fermi con quelli spumante di ogni singola area vocazionale. Tale analisi ha evidenziato al di là delle diverse caratteristiche di ogni singola area l’attitudine di questo vitigno a dare origine a vini spumanti di elevata qualità.

The task of zoning plays a significant role in understanding the potential and suitability of a specific vine-growing area. Viticulture should always be considered in the light of the oenological objectives that one has in mind and the results of the vinification of grapes from different areas within the production zone under consideration are therefore of particular importance. The zoning of the Monti Lessini Durello D.O.C. area focused on the indigenous “Durella” variety, which is responsible for the majority of the zone’s viti-vinicultural production. During the four-year period of 2002-2005 we carried out surveys regarding vegetative and fruit yields, as well as vinifying grapes of this variety from the 15 areas we identified as a result of a pedological study of the region for the cultivation of Monti Lessini Durello, which covers quite a large area in the Provinces of Verona and Vicenza. An innovative aspect of this work was that – if only for one vintage – we also introduced an evaluation of the various wines’ oenological potential by subjecting them to prise de mousse. In this way, we were able to test, by means of sensory analysis, not only the peculiarities of the different zones but also their appropriateness for producing sparkling wines, comparing our evaluation of the still wine and the sparkling one from each specific production area. This analysis highlighted – apart from the different characteristics of each individual area – this variety’s aptitude for producing sparkling wines of very high quality.

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).

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.

Evaluation of climate change impacts at the Portuguese Dão terroir over the last decades: observed effects on bioclimatic indices and grapevine phenology

In the last decades the growers of the Portuguese Dão winegrowing region (center of Portugal) are experiencing changes in climate that are influencing either grape phenology berry health and ripening. Aiming to study the relationships between climate indices (CI), seasonal weather and grapevine phenology, in this work long-term climate and phenological data collected at the experimental vineyard of the Portuguese Dão research centre between 1958 and 2019 (61 years) for the red variety Touriga Nacional, was analyzed. The trends over time for the classical temperature-based indices (Growing Season Temperature – GST -, Growing Degree Days – GDD, Huglin Index – HI and Cool Night Index – CI) presented a significantly positive slope while the Dryness Index (DI) showed a negative trend over the last 61 years. Regarding grapevine phenology, an average advance of 4.5 days per decade in the harvest day was observed throughout the last 61 years. Consequently, the weather conditions during the ripening period have changed, showing an increasing trend over time in the average temperature (higher magnitude in the maximum than in the minimum temperature) and a decrease in the accumulated rainfall. A regression analysis showed that ~50% of harvest date variability over years was explained by the temperature-based indices variability. These observed effects of climate change on bioclimatic indices and corresponding anticipation of harvest date can still be considered advantageous for the Dão terroir as it allows to achieve an optimal berry ripening before the common equinox rains and, therefore, avoid the potential negative impacts of the rainfall on berry health and composition.

Aromatic maturity is a cornerstone of terroir expression in red wine

Harvesting grapes at adequate maturity is key to the production of high-quality red wines. Enologists and wine makers define several types of maturity, including technical maturity, phenolic maturity and aromatic maturity. Technical maturity and phenolic maturity are relatively well documented in the scientific literature, while articles on aromatic maturity are scarcer. This is surprising, because aromatic maturity is, without a doubt, the most important of the three in determining wine quality and typicity (including terroir expression). Optimal terroir expression can be obtained when the different types of maturity are reached at the same time, or within a short time frame. This is more likely to occur when the ripening takes place under mild temperatures, neither too cool, nor too hot. Aromatic expression in wine can be driven, from low to high maturity, by green, herbal, fresh fruit, ripe fruit, jammy fruit, candied fruit or cooked fruit aromas. Green and cooked fruit aromas are not desirable in red wines, while the levels of other aromatic compounds contribute to the typicity of the wine in relation to its origin. Wines produced in cool climates, or on cool soils in temperate climates, are likely to express herbal or fresh fruit aromas; while wines produced under warm climates, or on warm soils in temperate climates, may express ripe fruit, jammy fruit or candied fruit aromas. Growers can optimize terroir expression through their choice of grapevine variety. Early ripening varieties perform better in cool climates and late ripening varieties in warm climates. Additionally, maturity can be advanced or delayed by different canopy management practices or training systems.

Copper contamination in vineyard soils of Bordeaux: spatial risk assessment for the replanting of vines and crops

Copper (Cu) is widely and historically used in viticulture as a fungicide against mildew. Cu has a strong affinity for soil organic matter and accumulates in topsoil horizons. Thus, Cu may negatively affect soil organisms and plants, consequently reducing soil fertility and productivity. The Bordeaux vineyards have the largest vineyard surfaces (26%) within French controlled appellation and a great proportion of French wine production (around 5 million hl per year). Considering the local context of vineyard surfaces decreasing (vine uprooting) and possible new crop plantation, the issue of Cu potential toxicity rises. Therefore, the aims of this work are firstly to evaluate the Cu contamination in vineyard soils of Bordeaux, secondly to produce a risk assessment map for new vine or crop plantation. We used soil analyses from several local studies to build a database with 4496 soil horizon samples. The database was enhanced by means of pedotransfer functions in order to estimate the bioaccessible (EDTA-extractable) Cu in soils of samples without measurements. From this database, 1797 georeferenced samples with CuEDTA concentrations in the topsoil (0-50 cm depth) were used for kriging interpolation in order to produce the spatial distribution map of CuEDTA in vineyard soils. Then, the spatial distribution of Cu was crossed with vine uprooting surfaces and municipality boundaries. CuEDTAconcentrations ranged from 0.52 to 459 mg/kg and showed clear anomalies. Our results from spatial analysis showed that almost 50% of vineyard soil surfaces have CuEDTA concentrations higher than 30 mg/kg (moderate risk for new plantation) and 20% with concentrations higher than 50 mg/kg (high risk for new plantation). A decision-support map based on municipalities was realised to provide a simple tool to stakeholders concerned by land use management.