A zoning study of the viticultural territory of a cooperative winery in Valpolicella

The Valpolicella hilly area, north of Verona, is highly vocated for viticulture but its vineyards are sometimes characterized by very different soil and microclimate conditions which can greatly affect their oenological potential. A zoning study promoted by the Cooperative Winery Valpolicella (Negrar, Verona, Italy) was carried out with the aim of evaluating the oenological potential of the vineyards of the Winery associated growers. The final objective is to improve in general the quality of the wines and in particular to increase the production of premium wines (Amarone and Recioto).
On the basis of the results obtained from 12 reference vineyards spread on a wine territory of about 500 ha, it was possible to distinguish zones with different performances with regard to yield and technological quality of the grapes, which in turn was reflected in the quality of the corresponding wines.