Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
produced over a long time. This approach is the basis of the French AOC sys-
tem, which came into effect with the establishment of the Institut National des
Appellations d'Origine (INAO) in 1935. The French system of categorizing wine
is the model for EU wine legislation. The AOC system identifies all the vineyards
in particular areas, based on their geographic location, and prescribes the accept-
able varieties, viticultural methods, yield, fruit ripeness, and maximum alcoholic
strength of the wine. The system offers the consumer a product guarantee through
its categories of Appellation d'Origine Contrôllée (AOC), Vin Délimité de Qual-
ité Supérieure (VDSQ), and Vin de Pays. However, the AOC regulations make
it difficult for growers, especially those outside the historically favored regions of
Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne, to experiment with new varieties and pro-
duction systems. Also, the relationship between a geographical area and the char-
acter of a wine becomes less meaningful for “catchall” appellations, such as Bor-
deaux and Champagne (Robinson 1999).
Similar, but generally less restrictive, quality recognition systems are in place
in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece in Europe, and in Argentina. The United
States and Australia also have systems that define viticultural regions, respectively
referred to as American Viticultural Areas (AVA) and Geographical Indications
(GI). Before the GI scheme, introduced as part of a wine agreement with the EU,
Australia had established a Label Integrity Program, which is intended to ensure
the correct designation of region and variety on the bottle label. The GI system
has a hierarchy of States and Territories, Zones, Regions, and Subregions, based
on soil, local climate, and history. The AVA system in California even goes so far
as to call a region, such as the Napa Valley, an “appellation” and subregions within
that, “subappellations.”
But the identification of these geographical regions has contributed little to
a scientific understanding of the relationship between particular wines and the
“earthy component” of the
terroir
in which they are produced.
The Technical Approach
The technical approach avoids defining
terroir
in terms of traditional regions.
Rather, this approach seeks to identify specific properties of the soil and envi-
ronment that determine wine character. Of course, these properties will also in-
fluence a site's suitability to grow certain varieties, so to that extent
soil
,
environ-
ment
, and
variety
will interact to determine wine character.
The technical approach has not been very successful, primarily because it is
difficult to unambiguously identify the causal relationships between soil proper-
ties and the complex chemistry that determines wine character. For example, Rank-
ine et al. (1971, p. 33) in South Australia wrote, “there seems to be little, if any,
detailed factual information on the influence of different soils on the composition
of grapes . . . or the quality of wines made from the same varieties.” These sci-
entists examined the relationship among soil, grape juice composition, and wine
quality in a series of experiments over six years in the Barossa and Eden Valleys,
and on irrigated vineyards in the Riverland region of South Australia (box 9.2).
Five soil types were included and a range of chemical analyses performed on the
grape juices and wines. Unfortunately, no detailed soil analysis was done. The soils
were differentiated by their general-purpose classification names, which convey lit-
tle information about the soil's properties relevant to vine growth and grape com-
9.2.2
