Integration of wine cultivation history for characterizing the terroirs of Côte d’Or (Burgundy, France)

Grapevine leaf removal (LR) in the cluster area is typically done between fruit set and cluster closure to create an unfavorable microclimate for fungal diseases, such as Botrytis cinerea and powdery mildew. Grape growers are now turning their attention to pre-flowering LR, which has additional benefits under certain conditions. When applied before flowering, LR strongly affects fruit set and thus the number of berries per cluster. It is therefore a good yield control tool, replacing time-consuming manual cluster thinning (Poni et al. 2006). It also improves berry structure, that is, skin thickness, skin-to-pulp ratio, and berry composition (total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and polyphenols) (Palliotti et al. 2012; Komm and Moyer 2015). By exacerbating competition for assimilates between reproductive and vegetative organs, pre-flowering LR also poses some risks. Excessive yield loss at the same year’s harvest due to a too low fruit set rate is the main concern: intensive pre-flowering LR (100% of the cluster area) can induce up to 50% yield loss in potted vines (Poni et al. 2005). Other parameters, such as cool climatic conditions during flowering, also affect fruit set rate and make it difficult to predict potential yield at harvest. Repeated and overly intensive preflowering LR can have repercussions over time and induce a decline in bud fruiting and plant vigor (Risco et al. 2014).

Aim: To quantify the extent to which national mixes of wine grape varieties (in terms of vineyard bearing area) have become more or less diversified, and ‘internationalized’, since wine globalization accelerated from the 1990s.

In field conditions, grapevine roots are colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Little is known about the species composition of AMF communities associated to grapevine.

In viticulture sector to find new tools for pest management has become an urgent necessity. Hence, grapevines cultivation has high production rate demand and to meet the intensive market request, a massive use of pesticides is often required. In addition to the environmental problems associated with large use of chemicals, there is an increasing number of consumers which are asking for

Deficit irrigation strategies can be valuable means to improve grape quality while saving important amounts of water. A simple way to use deficit irrigation can be based on irrigating a vineyard with a determined level of crop evapotranspiration. Using a precise physiological parameter indicating water status, irrigation could be managed to maintain a specific pre-dawn leaf water potential.