terclim by ICS banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Grape berry size is a key factor in determining New Zealand Pinot noir wine composition

Grape berry size is a key factor in determining New Zealand Pinot noir wine composition

Abstract

Read full article on OENO One

Making high quality but affordable Pinot noir (PN) wine is challenging in most terroirs and New Zealand’s (NZ) situation is no exception. To increase the probability of making highly typical PN wines producers choose to grow grapes in cool climates on lower fertility soils while adopting labour intensive practices. Stringent yield targets and higher input costs necessarily mean that PN wine cost is high, and profitability lower, in line-priced varietal wine ranges. To understand the reasons why higher yielding vines are perceived to produce wines of lower quality we have undertaken an extensive study of PN in NZ. Since 2018, we established a network of twelve trial sites in three NZ regions to find individual vines that produced acceptable commercial yields (above 2.5kg per vine) and wines of composition comparable to “Icon” labels. Approximately 20% of 660 grape lots (N = 135) were selected from within a narrow juice Total Soluble Solids (TSS) range and made into single vine wines under controlled conditions. Principal Component Analysis of the vine, berry, juice and wine parameters from three vintages found grape berry mass to be most effective clustering variable. As berry mass category decreased there was a systematic increase in the probability of higher berry red colour and total phenolics with a parallel increase in wine phenolics, changed aroma fraction and decreased juice amino acids. The influence of berry size on wine composition would appear stronger than the individual effects of vintage, region, vineyard or vine yield. Our observations support the hypothesis that it is possible to produce PN wines that fall within an “Icon” benchmark composition range at yields above 2.5kg per vine provided that the Leaf Area:Fruit Weight ratio is above 12cm2 per g, mean berry mass is below 1.2g and juice TSS is above 22°Brix.

DOI:

Publication date: May 31, 2022

Issue: Terclim 2022

Type: Article

Authors

Damian Martin1, Rebecca Deeds4, Melodie Lindsay4, Katie Parish-Virtue4, Paul Kilmartin4, Bruno Fedrizzi4, Leandro Dias Araujo5, Tanya Rutan6, Emma Sherman3, Muriel Yvon1, Lily Stuart1, Franzi Grab1, Claire Scofield2, Michelle Schurmann2 and Claire Grose1

1The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Marlborough, New Zealand
2The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Clyde, New Zealand
3The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Auckland, New Zealand
4School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
5AGLS Faculty, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand
6Bragato Research Institute, Marlborough, New Zealand

Contact the author

Keywords

Pinot noir, grape, vine, wine, yield, quality, region, terroir

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terclim 2022

Citation

Related articles…

Rationalizing The Wine Nucleophilic Competition For Quinone Addition

loss and color browning which lead to wine unacceptance by consumers. These changes are mainly driven by the consumption of oxygen by polyphenols leading to the production of quinones which are oxidant compounds. Quinones can react with numerous nucleophilic compounds notably aromatic thiols, decreasing the aromatic bouquet of the wine.

Read More

Obtaining new varieties derived from Monastrell for the preparation of low alcoholic wines

The main challenge faced by viticulture is to improve the quality of the wines, adapting them to the new consumer demands that demand wines with lower alcohol content and greater freshness. In the last 30 years, a clear modification has been observed in the composition of the grape due to climate change

Read More

Know thy enemy: oxygen or storage temperature?

It is well known that high oxygen levels and high ageing temperatures are detrimental to white wine’s composition and ageing capacity. However, these results, though valuable

Read More

Assessing the benefits of irrigation access: the case of Southern France vineyards

Agriculture worldwide is threatened by climate change. In particular, declining water resource availability combined with increasing water demand is a key challenge in many rainfed areas, where irrigation appears to be a straightforward adaptation option. In this context, assessing the impacts of irrigation adoption on farm yields and incomes is a necessary step to reflect on the impact of both ex-post and ex-ante policies.

Read More

Activation of retrotransposition in grapevine

Retrotransposons, particularly of the Ty-Copia and Ty-Gypsy superfamilies, represent the most abundant and widespread transposons in many plant genomes. Grapevine is no exception and it is clear that these mobile elements have played a major role in the evolution of Vitaceae genomes. While speculation abounds around the possible role of transposons in plant genomes, outside of the rather obvious involvement of retrotransposition in fueling genome expansion, there is little clarity of the actual role these elements have in both developing new genetic variation and in modulating epigenetic responses within genomes to changing climate. To this end we have been exploring de-novo assembled Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir genomes with a view to catalogue retrotransposon loci to determine the structural intactness and thus age of insertion variation across a small number of clonal linages of these 2 varietals in an attempt to identify ‘live’ TE loci.

Read More