GEOSCIENCE CANADA SERIES Geology and Wine 12 (original) (raw)
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SERIES Geology and Wine 12 . New Zealand Terroir
2010
New Zealand produces premium quality wines and its wine industry is growing rapidly. The winegrowing regions have growing degree-days that range from 900 in cool Central Otago and Canterbury, to more than 1600 in the warmest region in the country, Auckland. Average growing season temperatures for the same regions range from approximately 14.3°C to 17.6°C. Most trophy-winning red wines are grown in areas with a climate cooler than where similar wines are grown to high standard internationally. New Zealand vineyards are planted mainly on flat alluvium and aggradation gravels with slopes of less than 3°. Rapid growth is pushing new plantings onto adjacent hillsides that are underlain by greywacke, schist, and (less commonly) limestone. The expansion of the industry onto these different substrates will affect grape and wine characteristics and may lead to new styles of New Zealand ultra-premium wines.
Geophysics and Wine in New Zealand
Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2011
The New Zealand wine industry is committed to producing high quality, market led wines (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2009). Consequently for the industry, it is imperative to understand what factors influence grape and wine properties in order to maximise the production of premium wines. New Zealand winegrowing regions produce different styles of wine, yet there is little data to build an understanding of what contributes to the quality of New Zealand wines both on regional and local scales. On a global scale, the New Zealand industry accounts for less than 0.03% of land under vine and less than 0.5% of global wine production (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2009), and yet it adds an estimated $4 billion to the New Zealand economy (NZIER, 2009). Global area under vine in 2006 was roughly 7,812,000 ha, and wine production was approximately 282,000,000 hl (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin [OIV], 2006). Quantifying variables that may influence grape/wine parameters may aid in creating a better understanding of what factors influence wine characteristics. This research d e m o n s t r a t e s t h a t v i n e g r o w t h i s v a r i a b l e i n u n i f o r m l y managed blocks, and geophysical tools can be used to map soil variability in vineyards, which in turn can influence grapevine vigour and presumably grape properties. Terroir can be defined as the physical and chemical characteristics of a vineyard or region, including geology, soils, topography, and climate. Different terroirs have been delineated in Europe based largely on areas that have produced distinctive wines over a long period of time (White, 2003). These areas are typically delineated using geographical indicators such as geology, soil, topography and mesoclimate. The influence of winemaker and cultural practices can also be considered part of terroir. These environmental properties and cultural practices interact to create wine with particular characteristics, and the place of origin ultimately influences the wines produced. Terroir forms the basis for appellation d'origine controlée (AOC), the vineyard classification system used in France in areas such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne, with wine produced from particular terroirs being associated with a certain quality and wine style (Wilson, 1998). Several publications have emerged on different facets of terroir at various scales, indicating an increased interest in the subject. For example, Swinchatt & Howell (2004) explore the terroir of the Napa Valley examining its geology, history and environment. Haeger (2004) discusses the rise of Pinot Noir in North America and its associated terroirs. Wilson (1998) discusses the terroir of selected areas in France. Geoscience Canada has a series devoted to www.intechopen.com Earth and Environmental Sciences 4 geology and wine from various winegrowing regions of the world (Macqueen & Meinert, 2006). Terroir studies have also been conducted on a vineyard-block scale examining local variations in properties such as microclimate and soils (e.g. Trought et al., 2008). A summary of national-regional terroir in New Zealand is described in Imre & Mauk (2009). Grapevine trunk circumference measurements can be used as a proxy for variations in grapevine vigour on a site-specific level (e.g. Clingeleffer & Emmanuelli, 2006; Acevedo-Opazo et al., 2008; Trought et al., 2008). These localised variations in even small vineyard blocks can in turn show differences in grape quality parameters (e.g. Cortell et al., 2005; Trought et al., 2008). If blocks are uniformly managed, changes in soil properties or local topography may contribute to variations in vine trunk circumference. A rapid cost-effective method to identify areas of homogeneity in the subsurface, when coupled with GPS surveys, may provide useful input into site specific variations. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) surveys are commonly used to map areas of different soil properties (e.g.
1 Geophysics and Wine in New Zealand
2018
The New Zealand wine industry is committed to producing high quality, market led wines (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2009). Consequently for the industry, it is imperative to understand what factors influence grape and wine properties in order to maximise the production of premium wines. New Zealand winegrowing regions produce different styles of wine, yet there is little data to build an understanding of what contributes to the quality of New Zealand wines both on regional and local scales. On a global scale, the New Zealand industry accounts for less than 0.03% of land under vine and less than 0.5% of global wine production (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2009), and yet it adds an estimated $4 billion to the New Zealand economy (NZIER, 2009). Global area under vine in 2006 was roughly 7,812,000 ha, and wine production was approximately 282,000,000 hl (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin [OIV], 2006). Quantifying variables that may influence grape/wine parameters may aid in cre...
The Role of Vineyard Geology in Wine Typicity
Journal of Wine Research, 2008
Vineyard geologybedrock and overlying soilsis widely supposed to help explain the typicity of wine from a particular area, though there has been little analysis of how this might come about. Such an evaluation is attempted here. Geology does underpin some of the physical parameters that affect vine performance, but in an indirect way and the factors are commonly manipulated artificially. A direct geochemical influence on wine flavour is widely inferred but remains undemonstrated. The popular model of nutrients being taken up by the vine and persisting to be tasted in the finished wine is untenable. The amounts that reach the fermenting must are minuscule, bear little relation to the substrate composition, and can be further complicated by contamination and fining. In the final wine these inorganic nutrients normally exist in concentrations far below human recognition thresholds and are "swamped" by the organic secondary metabolites that do dominate wine flavour. Hence any geochemical influence, like that of the physical factors, has to be highly complex and indirect. The notion of being able to taste the vineyard geology in the winea goût de terroiris a romantic notion which makes good journalistic copy, and is manifestly a powerful marketing tactic, but it is wholly anecdotal and in any literal way is scientifically impossible. Thus critical evaluation leads to the conclusion that the role of geology tends to be exaggerated.
JancisRobinson.com, 2022
NORTHLAND WINES REVIEWED in relation to the article ‘Oceanic Winegrowing in Aotearoa’s Far North’ published June 2022, JancisRobinson.com
The paper initially looks at different viticultural zoning traditions as well as modern day approaches, concerns, issues and purposes associated with this form of sectionalisation schemes from a cultural history related development perspective. The empirical studies from literature on this topic and related themes reveal that majority of the still existing traditional viticultural zoning systems relate to a 19 th century "French notion" of the well known Terroir concept, the latter is said to have originated from Latin many centuries ago. The zoning systems of some generally referred to as "old world", such as France, Spain and Italy, were originally introduced solely to regulate the wine industry especially, to protect winemaker livelihood in already then established wine regions. Interestingly, these old systems and their derivatives portray significantly less reference to geography. In the present day context, many different aspects are managed by zoning a wine producing nation's vineyards and wineries and they are; wine identification and characterisation, vintage labelling, both for implementing regulatory measures over wine marketing strategies with "designated origins" controlled by state institutions, as well as in some instances for irrigation, and are discussed. Consequently, the paper outlines major contemporary approaches being developed and implemented by the new world, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, for improving viticulture husbandry practices with scientifically validated technical tweak and know-how obtained by deploying digital data processing and state-of-the-art mapping technologies. Finally, the paper proposes a simple higher level framework at a macro (nation's regional) scale for viticultural zoning to identify and characterise New Zealand Terroirs using some basic wine style, climatic conditions required for grapevine growing and altitude data. This framework could be extended for zoning New Zealand wineries using "meso" scale thematic maps, indicators and other essential factors relating to grapevine varietal characteristics, plant growth, local (vineyard site) environmental, climatic and winemaking as well as economic using cartographic data in grid as well as vector formats. This work relates to a wider project called Eno-Humans that is aimed at building models to analysing vital associations between different combinations of two major categories of factors, namely; dependent, such as grapevine yield and wine quality, the latter generally described in qualitative and rather imprecise forms, often than not perceived as a subjective issue with wine sensory perception descriptors and ratings, and independent, such as climate and environmental, available in more precise, quantitative measures and formats. The relevant viticulture factors of both categories are analysed using historic, live and model prediction data sets to better understand and forecast vineyard yield and wine quality outcome scenarios.
Climate effects on grape production and quality at Kumeu, New Zealand
20th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. , 2013
Grape quality and anticipated berry composition (Brix, flavour and aroma) significantly vary due to the variability in seasonal climatic and environmental conditions, such as soil and topography within vineyards. Such "Meso" climatic and "terroir" variations affect grapevine phenology (from bud formation to berry ripening stages). This in turn affects productivity, some instances extensively, in terms of total vine yield, grape bunch count, berry weight and composition even within a vineyard. Quantifying these effects on grape production and quality has been a challenging task as no detailed study has been performed at precision agricultural level for this vineyard located in Kumeu, New Zealand. This study investigates the influences of climate and soil components on the production of this vineyard using data gathered from 2011 to 2013.
Export Date: 11 January 2013, Source: Scopus, Language of Original Document: Italian; English, Correspondence Address: Bazzoffi, P., Firenze, Italy