Moderator : Etienne Neethling
4. Marco Ventrella - Chenin Blanc adaptability and versatility in various terroirs - A South African Viticulturists’ perspective.
Chenin Blanc makes up 18.6% of the total wine grape vineyard area in South Africa. Producing 34% of the white grapes crushed and 23% of the total wine harvest (SAWIS 2017). With 17,543ha of Chenin South Africa is the largest producer of this variety in the world. In South Africa Chenin Blanc is planted in all major wine producing areas and continues to be the no 1 planted variety today. 27% of all vineyards over 20 years old and 38.2% of all white vineyards over 20 years old in South Africa are Chenin Blanc.
The numbers alone tell a story of the success of the variety from an agricultural point of view. Geographical distribution/concentration and longevity of vineyards/varieties suggest their suitability to particular terroirs retrospectively. The wide distribution, continued culture, high concentration and versatility of Chenin Blanc in South Africa point firmly at the Adaptability, Resilience and Longevity of the variety under various and ever changing conditions.
What follows are working viticulturists experience with and observations of Chenin Blanc with respect to Drought tolerance, Heat tolerance, Bearing habits, Resilience to and ability to recover from Stress conditions. The “constraints” of Chenin Blanc from a climatic point of view in the South African context. The Longevity of the Chenin Blanc vineyards and what this provides us both as evidence of success as well as the wine potential of these older vineyards. Finally an anthropomorphism of Chenin Blanc as an archetype, the “Boere Meisie”.
5. Isabelle Lajeunesse (Poster) - Viticulture facing climate change in Montlouis-sur-Loire: what virtuous solutions for adaptation?
Viticulture in the municipality of Montlouis-sur-Loire is a strong identity marker of the territory and is a major asset of its development. Also, adaptation to climate change is an important issue for the territory. While the effects of climate change have already led to changes in agricultural practices, there is no adaptation strategy to date, let alone the long term. Moreover, the techniques used are not very sustainable.
However, despite the absence of a medium and long-term vision, the Montlouis-sur-Loire area has already implemented several actions that are likely to promote the development of a sustainable adaptation strategy to climate change at different levels of actors and scales of the territory. The coordination of these actions would nevertheless require the creation of a local place dedicated to the transfer of knowledge.
6. Chloé Plumas et Corentin Thermes (Poster) - The DO Mentrida in Spain: What blockages and levers for the development of climate change ajustment strategies?
The study focuses on winemaker development processes for climate change adaptation strategies. The assumption is that the perception of climate change plays an important role in the process. The region of Castilla-La Mancha in the province of Toledo in Spain and more specifically the DO Mentrida was the subject of field surveys in February 2019 to test this hypothesis. Initial results show that the perception of climate change is very low and that current practices run counter to sustainable adaptation to climate change.