Assessment of environmental sustainability of wine growing activity in France

Irrigation of vineyards is a matter of controversial arguments at areas of high quality wine production. Besides, the effects of the water in the plant are closer related to the water availability than to the irrigation regime.

The use of resistant varieties is a long-term but promising solution to reduce chemical input in viticulture. Several important breeding programs in Europe and abroad are now releasing a range of new hybrids performing well regarding fungi susceptibility and producing good quality wines. Unfortunately, insufficient attention is paid by the breeders to the adaptation of these varieties to climatic changes, notably to the increased climatic demand and water deficit (WD). Thus, prior to the adoption of such varieties by the wine industry in Mediterranean regions, there is a need to consider their suitability to WD. This study aimed to characterize the different drought-strategies adopted by 6 new resistant varieties selected by INRAE in comparison to Syrah. To allow the assessment of long-term impacts of WD, field-grown vines were exposed to contrasted WD from 2018 to 2021 under a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. A gradient of WD was applied in the field and controlled through plant measurements at the single plant level. Grape development was non-destructively monitored to determine the arrest of berry phloem unloading. The impacts of WD on berry composition, including water, primary metabolites (sugars, organic acids), secondary metabolites (anthocyanins, thiols precursors) and main cations contents, were assessed at this specific stage. Results showed different varietal responses during the year and inter-annual acclimation in terms of plant water use efficiency, biomass accumulation, as well as yield components and berry composition. WD differentially reduced the accumulation of primary metabolites at plant and berry levels, but it little changed their concentrations in the fruits at the ripe stage. Moreover, WD differentially impacted the accumulation of secondary metabolites and major cations between the varieties. In the talk, we’ll present the main results regarding the WD impacts on fruit metabolites and enlarge the reflection about the practical assessment of the grapevine acclimation to WD.

Aims: The objective of the present work is to review strategies applied to decrypt multidimensional and ill-defined concepts employed by winemakers and to illustrate these strategies with recent applications.

Goriška Brda est la région viticole située le plus à l’ouest de la Slovénie, attenante au Collio d’Italie. Goriška Brda (2020 ha de vignobles) a une longue tradition d’élevage viticole. La proximité de la mer Adriatique (Golfe de Trieste) au sud-ouest et des Alpes Juliennes au nord contribue à un climat caractéristique et unique qui influe sur la croissance et la fertilité de la vigne. La constitution des sols, un climat typique et un relief mouvementé provoquent des différences dans la production du raisin, sa quantité et sa qualité. L’utilisation du zonage ou du microzonage permettraient d’atténuer les influences des facteurs climatiques et du sol sur la production de la vigne ou d’en profiter. Pour évaluer la signification des différents facteurs, nous avons résumé et réuni les modèles de différents auteurs.

“The vine and the wine are great mysteries. Only the vine makes us intelligible what is the true flavor of the earth”. Colette. The notion of terroir has always been the basis of the notion of AOC from which it is inseparable. It is moreover the definition of the production zone which was at the start of the attempts to set up the designation of origin, at the beginning of the century, after the phylloxera crisis.