A GIS Analysis of New Zealand Terroir

Abstract

This paper summarises a national survey of the geological setting of vineyards in New Zealand. We also provide an overview of climate, slope, aspect and varietals planted in New Zealand vineyards as a whole and for some individual regions.
New Zealand produces premium quality wines and its wine industry is growing rapidly. Growing degree days in the winegrowing regions range from 900 in cool Central Otago and Canterbury to over 1600 in the warmest region in the country, Auckland. Average growing season temperatures for the same regions range from approximately 14.3°C to 17.6°C. New Zealand vineyards are planted mainly on flat alluvial and glacial gravels with slopes of less than 3°. Rapid growth is pushing new plantings onto adjacent hillsides that are underlained by greywacke, schist and less commonly limestone. The expansion of the industry onto these different substrates will affect grape and wine characteristics; this provides significant opportunities to develop new styles of New Zealand ultra-premium wines

DOI:

Publication date: December 8, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2008

Type : Article

Authors

Stephen P. IMRE and Jeffrey L. MAUK

School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag, 92019 Auckland, New Zealand

Contact the author

Keywords

GIS, terroir, New Zealand, geology, soil, climate

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2008

Citation

Related articles…

Drought tolerance assessment and differentiation of grapevine cultivars using physiological metrics: insights from field studies

This study aimed to validate a protocol and compare metrics for evaluating drought tolerance in two Vitis vinifera grapevine cultivars under field conditions. Various metrics were calculated to represent the physiological responses of plants to progressive water deficit. Data were collected from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay plants subjected to three irrigation levels during the 2022-2023 season, along with data from three previous seasons. Hydro-escape areas were used to assess the plant’s ability to reduce water potential with decreasing soil water availability.

Understanding vine response to Mediterranean summer stress for the development of adaptation strategies – in the kaolin case

In this video recording of the IVES science meeting 2023, Sara Bernardo (CITAB, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal) speaks about understanding vine response to Mediterranean summer stress for the development of adaptation strategies – in the kaolin case. This presentation is based on an original article accessible for free on OENO One.

From genes to vineyards: system biology and new breeding technologies for water stress tolerance in grapevines

One of the major challenges for food security and sovereignty is to produce stress-tolerant plants without introducing foreign DNA, because the legislative process, that bans transgenics, challenges us to find new solutions for producing plants that can survive the drought. To achieve this goal, we need to identify genes that can be modified to improve stress tolerance in plants. In this work, we present an online tool for exploring the transcriptome of grapevines under water stress, which is one of the most important abiotic stresses affecting viticulture. The tool is based on a comprehensive collection of rna-seq data from 997 experiments, covering four different tissues (leaf, root, berry, and shoot), various levels of water stress, and diverse genetic backgrounds (cultivars and rootstocks) with different levels of tolerance to water stress.

Discovering the process of noble rot: fungal ecology of grape berries during the noble rot transformation in different vineyards of the Tokaj wine region

Botrytis cinerea, a well-known grapevine pathogen, has more than 1200 host plants causing grey rot in grapevine berries. However, it can also result in a desirable phenomenon called noble rot under specific microclimate conditions. An extraordinary demonstration of this natural process can be observed in the creation of aszú wines within Hungary’s Tokaj wine region. Beside B. cinerea other fungi and yeasts are involved in the secondary metabolic development of the grape berry which contributes to the sensory and analytical characterization of noble rot wines.

Growing characteristics of new PIWI varieties from the breeding program in the Czech Republic

Context and purpose of the study. The breeding of PIWI varieties has a long tradition in the Czech Republic. In the last two years, 9 new PIWI varieties have been registered.