Terroir 2006 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Pedological criteria according to the French hierarchy of vintages, Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC): study of two toposequences located in the Burgundian “Côte”

Pedological criteria according to the French hierarchy of vintages, Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC): study of two toposequences located in the Burgundian “Côte”

Abstract

The concept of terroir is defined by a set of natural and human factors. On the slopy vineyards of the Burgundian « Côte », the « Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) » spread out according to the slope in their order of quality : « AOC Grand Cru » at the top, « AOC Premier Cru » and « AOC Village » and « Bourgogne » on the piemont. In order to correlate the hierarchy of the vintages with the evolution of the topographic and pedological criteria, two toposequences were studied, in Gevrey Chambertin (« Côte de Nuits ») and Aloxe Corton (« Côte de Beaune »). Each profile was described according to STIPA 2000 guidelines, and was sampled for micro-morphological observations and physicochemical analyses. Such division of the vineyard expresses the character of the wines, according to two different lithologies, on which rendosols are established on the top of the flanks : hard limestones of Bathonian (« Côte de Nuits ») and marls of Oxfordian (« Côte de Beaune »). The soils on marls are less coloured and more calcareous than the others. On the slope and piemont, deeper, more or less calcareous soils develop on colluvial and others weathered materials. The permeability of the soils, which depends on the stoniness and the texture, is higher upstream than downstream. If the permeability is a prevailing factor in the classification of the AOC, the chemical factors have a more shaded impact : the total limestone content is maximal on the top of toposequences on the « AOC Grand Cru »; organic matter content tends to decrease downsteam, whereas the soil CEC is higher in the piemont.

DOI:

Publication date: January 12, 2022

Issue: Terroir 2006

Type: Article

Authors

Jean LEVEQUE, Edith TOULEMONDE and Francis ANDREUX

UMR INRA 1229 Microbiologie et Géochimie des Sols, Centre des Sciences de la Terre,
Université de Bourgogne, 6 boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France

Contact the author

Keywords

terroir, AOC, hierarchy, toposequence, permeability

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2006

Citation

Related articles…

Effects of graft quality on growth and grapevine-water relations

Climate change is challenging viticulture worldwide compromising its sustainability due to warmer temperatures and the increased frequency of extreme events. Grafting Vitis vinifera L.

Short-term relationships between climate and grapevine trunk diseases in southern French vineyards

[lwp_divi_breadcrumbs home_text="IVES" use_before_icon="on" before_icon="||divi||400" module_id="publication-ariane" _builder_version="4.19.4" _module_preset="default" module_text_align="center" module_font_size="16px" text_orientation="center"...

Different soil types and relief influence the quality of Merlot grapes in a relatively small area in the Vipava Valley (Slovenia) in relation to the vine water status

Besides location and microclimatic conditions, soil plays an important role in the quality of grapes and wine. Soil properties influence…

Rapid damage assessment and grapevine recovery after fire

There is increasing scientific consensus that climate changeis the underlying cause of the prolonged dry and hot conditions that have increased the risk of extreme fire weather in many countries around the world. In December 2019, a bushfire event occurred in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia where 25,000 hectares were burnt and in vineyards and surrounding areas various degrees of scorching and infrastructure damage occurred. The ability to coordinate and plan recovery after a fire event relies on robust and timely data. The current practice for measuring the scale and distribution of fire damage is to walk or drive the vineyard and score individual vines based on visual observation. The process is time consuming, subjective, or semi-quantitative at best. After the December 2019 fires, it took many months to access properties and estimate the area of vineyard damaged. This study compares the rapid assessment and mapping of fire damage using high-resolution satellite imagery with more traditional ground based measures. Satellite imagery tracking vineyard recovery in the season following the bushfire is being correlated to field assessments of vineyard productivity such as canopy health and development, fertility and carbohydrate storage. Canopy health in the seasons following the fires correlated to the severity of the initial fire damage. Severely damaged vines had reduced canopy growth, were infertile or had very low fertility as well as lower carbohydrate levels in buds and canes during dormancy, which reduced productivity in the seasons following the bushfire event. In contrast, vines that received minor damage were able to recover within 1-2 years. Tools that rapidly and affordably capture the extent and severity of damage over large vineyard area will allow producers, government and industry bodies to manage decisions in relation to fire recovery planning, coordination and delivery, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their response.

Measurement of redox potential as a new analytical winegrowing tool

Excell laboratory has initiated the development of an analytical method based on electrochemistry to evaluate the ability of wines to undergo or resist to oxidative phenomena. Electrochemistry is a powerful tool to probe reactions involving electron transfers and offers possibility of real-time measurements. In that context, the laboratory has implemented electrochemical analysis to assess oxidation state of different wine matrices but also in order to evaluate oxidative or reduced character of leaf and soil. Initially, our laboratory focused on dosage of compounds involved in responses of plant stresses and we were also interested in microbiological activity of soils. These analyses were compared with the measurement of redox potential (Eh) and pH which are two fundamental variables involved in the modulation of plant metabolism. Indeed, the variation of redox states of the plant reflects its biological activity but also its capacity to absorb nutriments. The Eh-pH conditions mainly determine metabolic processes involved in soil and leaf and our goal is to determine if this combined analytical approach will be sufficiently precise to detect biological evolutions (plant health, parasitic attack…).