Terroir and precision viticulture: are they compatible?

Growing concerns over the environmental and health risks posed by chemical pesticides have highlighted the need to reduce their use in the agri-food sector.

Studying wine metabolome through multiple targeted methods is complicated and limitative; since grapes, yeasts, bacteria, oxygen, enological techniques and wine aging collaborate to deliver one of the richest metabolomic fingerprint.

Climate change scenarios suggest an increase in temperatures and an intensification of summer drought. Measuring seasonal plant water status is an essential step in choosing appropriate adaptations to ensure yields and quality of agricultural produce. The water status of grapevines is known to be a key factor for yield, maturity of grapes and wine quality. Several techniques exist to measure the water status of soil and plants, but stem water potential proved to be a simple and precise tool for different plant species.

Wineries of Beaumes-de-Venise area make their best red wines with grapes from the “Triassic terroir”. This « terroir » is characterized by soils from the Triassic period. These specific soils are complex and quite heterogeneous. They originate from an eventful geological history to keep in mind to understand soils geographical distribution.

In this study we developed a methodology to prepare aromatic reconstitutions from fractions of a wine organic extract and we assessed these reconstitutions both in wine model solution and in de- aromatized wine.