Climate, grapes, and wine: structure and suitability in a variable and changing climate

Abstract

Climate is a pervasive factor in the success of all agricultural systems, influencing whether a crop is suitable to a given region, largely controlling crop production and quality, and ultimately driving economic sustainability. Climate’s influence on agribusiness is never more evident than with viticulture and wine production where climate is arguably the most critical aspect in ripening fruit to optimum characteristics to produce a given wine style. Any assessment of climate for wine production must examine a multitude of factors that operate over many temporal and spatial scales. Namely climate influences must be considered at the macroscale (synoptic climate) to the mesoscale (regional climate) to the toposcale (site climate) to the microscale (vine row and canopy climate). In addition, climate influences come from both broad structural conditions and singular weather events manifested through many temperature, precipitation, and moisture parameters. To understand climate’s role in growing winegrapes and wine production one must consider 1) the weather and climate structure necessary for optimum quality and production characteristics, 2) the climate suitability to different winegrape cultivars, 3) the climate’s variability in wine producing regions, and 4) the influence of climate change on the structure, suitability, and variability of climate.

DOI:

Publication date: December 3, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2010

Type: Article

Authors

G.V. Jones

Department of Environmental Studies
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Blvd
Ashland, Oregon

Contact the author

Keywords

Climate, grapes, wine, temperature, climate change, climate variability

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2010

Citation

Related articles…

Colored hail‐nets as a tool to improve vine water status: effects on leaf gas exchange and berry quality in Italia table grape

Protecting table grape vineyards with white hail‐nets is a common practice in Southern Italy. Hail‐nets result in shading effects of 10‐20 %, depending on their density

The developement of vineyard zonation and demarcation in South Africa

L’histoire de viticulture de l’Afrique du Sud embrasse 340 ans, et a commencé, à la province du Cap, où les colonisateurs hollandais ont planté les premières vignes. L’arrivée des Huguenots français en 1688 a avancé, le développement.

Untangle berry shrivel environmental risk factors and quantify symptoms with AI – GeomAbs meets BAISIQ

Berry Shrivel (BS, Traubenwelke) is a sugar accumulation disorder of grapevine of unknown causes, having a great negative impact on grape quality and incalculable risks for yield losses, and for which no reliable curative practices are available.

VitExpress, an open interactive transcriptomic platform for grapevine

[lwp_divi_breadcrumbs home_text="IVES" use_before_icon="on" before_icon="||divi||400" module_id="publication-ariane" _builder_version="4.20.4" _module_preset="default" module_text_align="center" module_font_size="16px" text_orientation="center"...

Study of the aromatic oxidation markers of Tempranillo long aged wines

The aromatic quality of wines after a long aging period in bottle is one of key points for oenologists. The objective of this work is to determine the main representative aromatic compounds found in long aged wines from D.O.Ca. Rioja. This study was made by 32 wines from 1971 to 2010 vintages. Sotolon, acetaldehyde, phenylacetaldehyde, 1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronaptalene (TDN), β-damascenone, Y-decalactone and Y-dodecalactone were determined as the most important oxidation markers by GC-MS analysis. Moreover, sensory analysis using triangular tests were performed from wines with and without the addition of the mentioned compounds. Four different concentrations of each odorant were added, as individual compounds and as mixtures. The additions were ranged from values close to the reference odour thresholds up to high level concentrations. The most identified aroma was sotolon, which is commonly associated to curry and coffee liqueur aromatic notes. Other oxidative compounds were easily detected by panellists, such as Y-decalactone (peach compote), Y-dodecalactone (ripe fruit). The mixtures of the odorants were most easily detected than the individual compounds. It should be noted that acetaldehyde and phenylacetaldehyde were rarely perceived and distinguished.