The terroir of Carnuntum: investigation of the physiogeographic characteristics and interdisciplinary study of viticultural functions of the Carnuntum wine district, Austria

Fossil fuel combustion continues to drive increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, consequently elevating the global annual mean temperature and specifically increasing the growing season temperatures in many of the world’s most important wine growing regions (IPCC 2014; Jones et al 2005). Grapes are sensitive to changes in growing season temperatures, and past models have shown a direct link between warming temperatures and earlier harvest dates (Cook and Wolkovich 2016). Globally, there have been shifts of 1-2 weeks for wine growing regions (Wolkovich et al 2017 and references within). The phenological shifts resulting from growing season temperature increases are documented internationally, and models predicting phenology using temperature are becoming more precise (Parker et al 2011).

Les approches du terroir en tant qu’entité géographique (zonages) connaissent un développement accru récent en lien avec l’essor des SIG. Les méthodes, les objectifs et les critères utilisés varient considérablement selon les études.

La caractérisation objective des terroirs viticoles est nécessaire pour mieux comprendre les relations existantes entre les sols, la plante et la qualité de la production vinicole. Dans le cadre d’une recherche sur les terroirs viticoles du canton de Vaud – Suisse, un géorépertoire pédologique et agronomique a été conçu et réalisé.

The plant rhizosphere microbial communities are an essential component of plant microbiota, which is crucial for sustaining the production of healthy crops. The main drivers of the composition of such communities are the growing environment and the planted genotype. Recent viticulture studies focus on understanding the effects of these factors on soil microbial composition since microbial biodiversity is an important determinant of plant phenotype, and of wine’s organoleptic properties. Microbial biodiversity of different wine regions, for instance, is an important determinant of wine terroir.

The components and the methodology for characterization of the terroir in Spain have been described by Gómez-Miguel et al.