A vine physiology-based terroir study in the AOC-Lavaux region in Switzerland

Abstract

Understanding how different pedoclimatic conditions interact with vine and berry physiology, and subsequently impact wine quality, is paramount for an good valorization of viticultural terroirs and can help to optimize mitigation strategies in the face of global warming.The aim of the present study was to establish terroir zones in a steep slope region in Switzerland based on vine and berry physiology. The study area, Villette in the AOC Lavaux, was a unique experimental site due to the homogeneity of plant material in a relatively small microclimate (140 ha) and a multiplicity of different expositions, soil types and altitudes. Vine and berry physiology as well as temperature of twenty-two plots were monitored during three consecutive seasons to investigate whether a link with pedoclimatic parameters can be established.The annual temporal variation of the average temperature was 142 growing degree days (GDD) over all years. Remarkably, spatial temperature variability was twice as high, with a variation between most extreme plots of 395 GDDs on average over all years. PCA and hierarchical clustering of assessed vine and berry physiological parameters resulted in a vintage dependent grouping of plots differing between years, which was not congruent with geological entities. This highlights the importance of the vintage effect, which had a large influence on vine and berry physiology and impacted terroir zones more than soil groups. Important differences in budburst and flowering were observed between plots, whereas altitude was the main driver of precocity in all years, being relatively independent of the vintage, which confirms the importance of topography in viticultural terroirs.

Modeling malic acid dynamics to ensure quality, aroma and freshness of Pinot blanc wines in South Tyrol (Italy)

“…On the other hand, in the present study, phenological timing was found to be clearly driven by the elevation gradient when each vegetative season was considered separately. Our findings are in accordance with those reported by Rienth et al (2020). In our study, a relevant vintage effect that influenced both vine and berry physiology was observed; however, elevation was found to be the leading driver of precocity in all the years of the study (2017)(2018)(2019).…”

“…Interestingly, in the present study, the vineyard average temperatures recorded during the grape vegetative period varied depending on site elevation within a range of 0 to 2 °C, and they significantly affected the phenological timing of Pinot blanc. This result corresponds to the findings of previous studies by Failla et al (2004) on the Nebbiolo grape in the Alpine environment, and by Valtellina and Rienth et al (2020) on Chasselas in the AOC-Lavaux region in Switzerland, in which the vertical temperature gradient, due to elevation, was found to have a direct influence on bud break, flowering and technological maturity dates. Indeed, air temperature is considered one of the most important factors which drive the growth and development of grapevines (Winkler, 1974;Fraga et al, 2019).…”

“…Besides sugar content, the acid content of grape juice is a critical parameter which affects wine quality (Conde et al, 2007) Rienth et al, 2020). In particular, grape acidity is a function of various exogenous factors, one of the most important being berry temperature (associated with air temperature and sunlight exposure), which can directly influence both sugar/organic acid and malic/tartaric acid ratios in grape juice, as widely reported by the literature (Ribéreau-Gayon et al, 2006;Conde et al, 2007;Jackson, 2008).…”

Grape Berry Secondary Metabolites and Their Modulation by Abiotic Factors in a Climate Change Scenario–A Review

“…A changing climate requires a profound knowledge of how abiotic factors modulate different quality-determining compounds of the grape berry in order to implement appropriate viticultural mitigation strategies (van Leeuwen and Destrac-Irvine, 2017;Rienth et al, 2020), select varieties, clones (Wolkovich et al, 2018), and rootstocks (Ollat et al, 2016), and to identify traits, genes, or QTLs for the breeding of new cultivars better adapted to future conditions (Duchêne, 2016).…”

Crimean autochthonous grape varieties as a factor of high-quality winemaking in a changing climate

“…The observed climate changes, such as an increase in the average ambient temperature, an increase in the shortage of fresh water, make adjustments to the metabolism of the grape, which affects the quality of berries and wine products, up to the transformation of the style of wines [1][2][3][4].…”