Vineyard altitude and mesoclimate influences on the phenology and maturation of Cabernet-Sauvignon grapes from Santa Catarina State

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">Santa Catarina State (SC) is a new grape growing region in Southern Brazil where 300 ha have been planted with <em>Vitis vinifera</em> L. since 2000. The annual production of this region is 3,944 tons of grapes and 1,549,000 liters of wine.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Aims</strong>: To evaluate the influence of climate and vineyard altitude on the phenology and ripening as well as the suitability of five new grape growing regions of SC for Cabernet-Sauvignon variety for two vintages (2005 and 2006).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods and results</strong>: Physicochemical analyses were performed on grape berries at 10-day intervals from véraison to harvest. Classification of the bioclimate according to the Winkler and Fregoni indices was also carried out for a long time period for these areas. Climate was strongly correlated with phenological precocity indices. Four Winkler Regions were established and the Fregoni index ranged from 402 to 1,466 for these regions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusions</strong>: A positive relationship was observed between altitude, air temperature and the annual vine cycle duration. In general, these Cabernet- Sauvignon grapes showed a good potential for winemaking mainly in Regions II and III of the Winkler scale.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Significance and impact of the study</strong>: Given the present and possible future changes in the global climate, the wine industry may be required to find new locations for viticulture. In this context, this research presents new grape growing regions which are promising for the cultivation of <em>Vitis</em> <em>vinifera</em> grape varieties in Brazil.</p>

Climate trends in a non-traditional high quality wine producing region

“…Regarding the question posed at the beginning of this study, one may infer that the significant trends detected in the Tmin and DTR series (Table 4) support the hypothesis of the presence of climate change that may affect the wine production of the eastern part of the State of São Paulo (Falcão et al, 2010;Giovaninni and Manfroi, 2009). This hypothesis is also consistent with the results presented in table 5.…”

“…The abovementioned evidences of warming trends observed in virtually all world's highest quality vine-producing regions of the Globe supports the assumption that the wine industry may be required to find new locations for viticulture (Falcão et al, 2010). Accordingly, we posed the following question: Is there any evidence of climate change that may impact the wine production of non-traditional areas?…”

“…By following Tonietto and Carbonneau (2004) and Tonietto et al (2006), we may indicate that these significant increasing trends obtained from the CI series may be regarded as an unfavorable change in the regional climate conditions related to wine color and aroma. This change to warmer nights may also be regarded as an unfavorable effect of the detected climate trends because, during grape ripening, cool night temperatures favor the sugar accumulation and limit the vegetative growth (Falcão et al, 2010;Rosier, 2006). .…”

Phenology and Ripening of Vitis vinifera L. and Vitis labrusca L. Varieties in the Maritime Climate of Samsun in Turkey’s Black Sea Region

“…The study findings for Samsun are similar to those reported by Bois et al (2008) for Bordeaux, which has a moderately warm climate, with a mean annual temperature of 13.8°C and an annual rainfall of 930 mm. The Rhône Valley in France and São Joaquim in Brazil were also reported to have a Region III WI classification (Falcao et al, 2010). Similarly, the warmest areas in Italy were classified as Region III and include the vicinity of Garda Lake, the Adige River Valley and low-elevation regions of Vicenza, Treviso and Pordenone.…”

Caracterização agronômica e edafoclimática dos vinhedos de elevada altitude

“…GRIS et al (2010) consideram 10 ºC de amplitude térmica adequado para a fenologia e a maturação das uvas nas regiões de altitude de Santa Catarina. FALCÃO et al (2010) avaliaram a influência da altitude e de fatores mesoclimáticos na fenologia e maturação da Cabernet Sauvignon nessas regiões, e perceberam que a amplitude térmica é mais significativa nos vinhedos de elevada altitude localizados em vales, do que naqueles localizados em planaltos. Esses autores concluíram ainda que a quantidade de noites frias é mais importante do que a amplitude térmica para a qualidade do vinho.…”