Soil, microclimate and altitude Three priority factors for wine quality

A famous phrase by the late Luigi Veronelli often returns to the fore:

Wine is climate, soil, labor and image.

Luigi Veronelli

Today, all players in the complex supply chain of the industry, recognize climate and soil as the priority factors for the future quality of the final product, exited to the market.

Theme well into the past, particularly regarding the importance of territories with cold climates. Indeed, in the 1930s, attempts were made in Germany to take riesling cultivation beyond the 51 parallel. But German scientists in the service of National Socialist pride failed.

After nearly a century, the concepts of soil and climate have radically changed.

The soil

I would start by developing the concept of soil – subsoil. That is, where the root of the vine draws the substances that, through the sap, are carried to the upper part, giving rise, in part, to the quality of the grape and thus the future wine.

Important is the geological origin of the subsoil, which, limiting us to the province of Cuneo, dates back to the Tertiary-Miocene period.

Caused by marine uplift, the hills of Langhe and Monferrato were formed hundreds of millions of years ago and, in a different, more recent era, those of Roero. All are rich in clay, sand and many trace elements.

According to a generic pattern, it is well known that soils rich in clay, give rise to theoretically more structured and more complex wines, while soils rich in sand, give rise to more elegant and fragrant wines.

The indiscriminate use of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides has eliminated the various concepts of environmentally sustainable soil altogether.

Regarding soil, it should be pointed out that it has undergone and continues to undergo many changes over time, especially in the area of “arable soil.”

Much of the land has either been cemented over, or has become part of works related to roadways, bridges or interchanges of various kinds imposed by city master plans.

I would add that the indiscriminate use of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides has eliminated the various concepts of environmentally sustainable soil altogether. Even fertilizers are becoming less and less “organic” to make way for those of chemical origin.

Altitude and microclimate: the example of the Rhine and Moselle vineyards.

In these cold regions the Roman conquerors themselves had imposed the cultivation of vines.

Moreover, “vitis allobrogica,” wrote Pliny the Elder in De Historia Naturalis, was about the vine of cold regions, in order to highlight the great ability of this plant to adapt from the warm-temperate climates of Asia Minor-its cradle of origin-to the cold regions of northern Europe.

The vineyards of the Moselle

In the Moselle, the vineyards stretch for more than 60 km, with meanders full of steep and craggy banks; the higher the cliff, the better the vineyard. Generally the exposure is southwest, south-southwest.

In the Moselle, the vineyards stretch for more than 60 km, with meanders full of steep and craggy banks; the higher the cliff, the better the vineyard.

The soil, rich in layered slate on the surface, absorbs heat during the day and gives it to the vines at night, partly mitigating the great cold.

The vineyard training system follows the classic ritocchino method, where vine rows run downhill along the slope, optimizing sunlight exposure and drainage, with narrow rows and an impressive slope that is often 70 percent and more. Obvious difficulties for work in the vineyard: “as much as 1,800 hours of annual work per hectare.”

Unfortunately, the price of grapes is not competitive: in fact, those who make wine are grappling with a difficult market; in fact, as in other similar wine-growing regions, many hectares of vineyards are lost each year.

The vineyards of the Rhine

The Rhine valley, on the other hand, is dotted with less steep, larger vineyards. The most interesting grape variety is riesling: “the prince of grape varieties” has adapted well to the region’s cold microclimate; in fact, it covers about 19,000 hectares, or eighty percent of the rieslings in all of Europe.

The vineyards are all backcountry, with a high number of vines per hectare (roughly 10000), with narrow rows and an impressive slope (even 70 percent).

However, white grape varieties dominate, primarily muller-turgau, or a cross of riesling and silvaner, followed by silvaner, kerner and pinot grigio.

Black grape vineyards are scarce, with pinot noir, called Spatburgubder, excelling (about 5 percent of the planted area).