VITOUR – The European World Heritage Vineyards

The definition of terroir has evolved throughout history, from something clearly negative in the XVIth-XVIIIth century to a complex multi-parametric construct with positive connotations but also with many scientific unknowns. Terroir has always been linked more or less explicitly to the sensory properties of the resulting products.

Bottle ageing is considered essential for most premium red wine production. An important aim of bottle ageing of wine is to achieve a balance between the oxidative and reductive development. This is typically evaluated by the accumulation of aldehyde compounds (causing oxidative off-flavour) and sulfur-containing compounds (causing reductive off-flavour) in the wine [1]

For wine areas around the world, nature and climate are becoming factors of production whose endowment becomes a stake beyond the traditional economic factors: labor, capital, land. They strongly influence agricultural and environmental conditions for production.

Cell death in Vitis vinifera L. berries late in ripening and berry shrinkage (loss of mass) can decrease yield and reduce grape quality in cultivars such as Cabernet Sauvignon

A total of 39 study sites from 11 commercial vineyards located in two traditional growing areas of Northern Italy were identified for airborne hyperspectral acquisition in summer 2009 with the Aisa-EAGLE Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging Sensor.