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Terroir is a French term with roots in the Latin term terra meaning ground or land. In the international wine jargon, the term has assumed a more specific and nuanced meaning: it is the result of “collective knowledge of the interactions” between the environment and the vines mediated through human action and “providing distinctive characteristics” to the final product (i.e., wine; OIV, 2010). Terroir is not just a geographical site, but includes: (i) the physical environment (e.g., climate, geology, soil, and topography); (ii) the biological material and production practices; (iii) cultural, socio-economical and political aspects. Nowadays, the storytelling of terroir is abundant in both the popular press and marketing of wine. Although there is no reference to wine quality in the description of the terroir concept (OIV, 2010), wines which may be associated with a single vineyard are often deemed superior, although wines derived from multiple sites may also be highly regarded (Bramley, 2017). According to OIV, 2010, which should be considered an accepted definition, terroir is a loose interpretation of a protected designation of origin (PDO), thus questioning the need for a wine-specific term. For example, in the regulation of the European Union (EC No. 510/2006 Art. 2.1(a), Council of the European Union, 2006), in order to benefit from PDO status, an agricultural product needs to: i) originate and be produced, processed and prepared in the defined geographical area and ii) have “quality or characteristics essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment with its inherent natural and human factors.” The concept of geographical origin can be used in all crops and foods, and PDOs are defined and regulated. Conversely, the terroir interpretation applies mostly to wine and is not regulated, which leaves it open to abuse and self-assessment without control, scientific evidence or socio-historical recognition (Matthews, 2016). As a result, in the current popular use, the term terroir has erroneously become jargon for vineyard site. A designation of origin is a strict regulation. In order to maintain characteristics related to the place and the traditional practices, PDO products are made according to production standards, and are evaluated before introduction to the market, to ensure conformity to the important and distinctive characteristics that are the reason for the designation. It should be clear that, when including all aspects, a PDO is a product that brings a sense of place (although, PDO delineation most commonly follows political boundaries and not the limits derived from scientific understandings). Reverse engineering of geographically designated products may be straightforward, but it is definitely harder to recreate the collective knowledge, the human and cultural aspects, which are crucial to the past but also the future developments of food. The predominant scientific focus of terroir research is on the relationships between plants and the environment, driven by site variability, and the effects of production methods, in interaction with the environment, on crop composition (van Leeuwen et al., 2004). Somewhat confusingly, in wine science, this specific branch that does not include cultural or socio-economical aspects, is also referred to using the term terroir. Terroir de base (Deloire et al., 2005), or less confusingly, a “functional zone” is the smallest area where it is possible to objectively describe the effect of environment on plant physiology and agricultural production, and which could be differentially managed (Bramley, 2005; Acevedo-Opazo et al., 2008; Bonfante et al., 2015; Brillante et al., 2016a; Brillante et al., 2017; Priori et al., 2019; Bramley, 2020). The approach to studying relationships between terroir and wine peculiarities is scale dependent, as different factors influence agricultural choices and vine performance at the regional or the within vineyard level (Vaudour, 2002). Recently, the science on the topic has shifted from a largely descriptive regional science to a technical research field, focused on the study of variation in the biophysical characteristics of the vineyard site (soil, climate, topography, etc.) and its interaction with vine performance; much of this work has involved precision agriculture methodologies (Bramley, 2020 and references therein). Currently, most of this biophysical research relating to terroir is based on zoning and the description of plant-environment interactions at a given site (Vaudour et al., 2015; White, 2020). The science of describing site-specific relationships between the physical environment, the vine and the wine has a shorter life than the social and historical recognition of regions and vineyards. A better scientific understanding of the mechanisms ruling vineyard variability and grape quality (also with more fundamental biological approaches, e.g., Tramontini et al., 2013; Dal Santo et al., 2018) would definitely benefit all players in the industry, from producers to marketers and wine writers in both the “New” and the “Old World.” We would expect the science to be a critical and proactive investigation, using current understanding of viticultural systems to provide directions for managing the quality of wines or suggesting more efficient viticultural practices; and not simply serving the role of justifying the status quo preferred by wine writers and wine marketers of iconic wines and regions. The identification and mapping of agricultural sites with similar characteristics from a physical point of view, also called zoning, is the first step in defining a designated area and has crucial importance also in precision and sustainable agriculture, with positive economic implications. Furthermore, the availability of spatial-temporal data obtained through affordable and rapid sensing technologies has paved the...
Luca Brillante; Antonello Bonfante; Robert G.V. Bramley; Javier Tardaguila; Simone Priori. Unbiased Scientific Approaches to the Study of Terroir Are Needed! Frontiers in Earth Science 2020, 8, 1 .
AMA StyleLuca Brillante, Antonello Bonfante, Robert G.V. Bramley, Javier Tardaguila, Simone Priori. Unbiased Scientific Approaches to the Study of Terroir Are Needed! Frontiers in Earth Science. 2020; 8 ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLuca Brillante; Antonello Bonfante; Robert G.V. Bramley; Javier Tardaguila; Simone Priori. 2020. "Unbiased Scientific Approaches to the Study of Terroir Are Needed!" Frontiers in Earth Science 8, no. : 1.
Carbon stable isotope composition of berry must at harvest (δ13C) is an integrated assessment of plant water status during grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berry ripening. Measurement of δ13C of grape juice is proposed as an alternative to traditional measurements of water status to capture the spatial variability of physiological response at the vineyard scale, i.e., zoning. We performed samplings at four different locations in California, United States, with three different cultivars of table and wine grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Crimson-Seedless). Leaf physiology (photosynthesis, AN, stomatal conductance, gs) and stem water potentials (Ψstem) were routinely measured. The δ13C was measured at harvest and strong relationships were found between Ψstem (R2 = 0.71), stomatal conductance (R2 = 0.71), net carbon assimilation (R2 = 0.59) and WUEi (R2 = 0.53). The role of leaf nitrogen on the signal was assessed by evaluating relationships between leaf nitrogen and WUEi (R2 = 0.54), Ci/Ca (R2 = 0.51), δ13C (R2 = 0.44), and Ψstem (R2 = 0.37). Although nitrogen can be among the environmental factors able to affect the δ13C signal, this difference is only observable when variability in N is very large, by pooling different vineyards/varieties, but not at the within-vineyard scale. The utility of δ13C was further tested and measured on grape berries sampled on an equidistant grid in a 3.5 ha vineyard where Ψstem was also measured throughout the field season and used to delineate management zones. Physiological measurements and grape composition were correlated to soil electrical resistivity and satellite-derived vegetation index. The two management zones obtained by δ13C or Ψstem were spatially similar at 67% and allowed to separate the harvest in two pools having statistically different grape composition (soluble solids, organic acids, and anthocyanin profiles). Zoning by δ13C performed as well as zoning by Ψstem to separate grape phenolic composition, e.g., for selective harvest. Our results provided evidence that δ13C of grape must is a reliable and repeatable assessor of plant water status and gas exchange in vineyard systems that are crucial for zoning vineyards, even when irrigated, and for ground-truthing sensor maps in precision viticulture.
Luca Brillante; Johann Martínez-Lüscher; Runze Yu; Sahap Kaan Kurtural. Carbon Isotope Discrimination (δ13 C) of Grape Musts Is a Reliable Tool for Zoning and the Physiological Ground-Truthing of Sensor Maps in Precision Viticulture. Frontiers in Environmental Science 2020, 8, 1 .
AMA StyleLuca Brillante, Johann Martínez-Lüscher, Runze Yu, Sahap Kaan Kurtural. Carbon Isotope Discrimination (δ13 C) of Grape Musts Is a Reliable Tool for Zoning and the Physiological Ground-Truthing of Sensor Maps in Precision Viticulture. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 2020; 8 ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLuca Brillante; Johann Martínez-Lüscher; Runze Yu; Sahap Kaan Kurtural. 2020. "Carbon Isotope Discrimination (δ13 C) of Grape Musts Is a Reliable Tool for Zoning and the Physiological Ground-Truthing of Sensor Maps in Precision Viticulture." Frontiers in Environmental Science 8, no. : 1.