Research summary on the use of Terroir as a wine purchasing cue

Grape growers around the world are seeking to reduce their reliance on herbicides. However, traditional alternatives to chemical weed control do not always integrate seamlessly into established vineyard operations. Employing nonchemical weed management often requires trellis alterations, purchasing or hiring new equipment, and depending on region, may significantly increase tractor passes required to reach desired level of weed control. Critical thinking and thoughtful strategies are necessary to minimize expenditures and maintain quality during the transition away from herbicides. In this trial, irrigation was installed underground in an effort to minimize water loss due to evaporation, better direct the water to the vines, and reduce weed growth in the difficult to control undervine area.

Context and purpose of the study. Climate change is already threatening California vineyards, as they grapple with increasing extreme weather events and drier growing seasons.

Currently, grapevine is host to a large number of pathogenic agents, including 65 viruses, five viroids and eight phytoplasmas. Needless to say, these pathogens, especially viruses responsible for several ‘infectious degeneration’ or ‘decline’ cause great distress to wine makers and grape growers, let alone the large economic losses incurred by the wine industry. A recent addition to this wide repertoire of grapevine viruses is a new viral disease known as Red Blotch in viticulture parlance. Its causal organism, Grapevine red blotch associated virus (GRBaV), discovered in 2008 is a newly identified virus of grapevines and a putative member of a new genus within the family Geminiviridae.

Climate change constitutes an enormous challenge for humankind and for all human activities, viticulture not being an exception. Long-term strategic changes are probably needed the most, but growers also need to deal with short-term changes: summers that are getting progressively warmer, earlier harvest dates and higher pH in musts and wines. In the last 10-15 years, a relevant corpus of research is being developed worldwide in order to evaluate to which extent extreme canopy management operations, aimed at reducing leaf area and, thus, limiting the source to sink ratio, could be useful to delay ripening. Although extreme canopy management can result in relevant delays in harvest dates, longer term studies, as well as detailed analysis of their implications on carbohydrate reserves, bud fertility and future yield are desirable before these practices can be recommended.

Following the idea of « Grande Filiera » (GF) (Great chain), of « Grande Zonazione » (GZ) (Great Zonation), of “interpretation, estimation and valorisation of vineyards and wines landscape, of “qualities”(we have classified more than ninety), of quality economy.