Christopher A. Badurek, Appalachian
Appalachian
University. Towards
Expert Systems to Support Viticulture in
Scientific assessment of terroir has been undertaken in many states in order
to more rapidly close the knowledge
gap between viticultural
practice and wine
quality. For example, the
environmental component of terroir
can be scientifically
assessed based on the physical
characteristics of a region through development
of geospatial models that identify
ideal locations for vineyards. The western region
of
led by the Yadkin Valley AVA. An
overview of three primary areas the GIScience
component of the Appalachian State
Enology Group is currently working on to
enhance viticulture in the region
is provided: site suitability modeling of Surry
County in the
of an expert system model to
enhance productivity at a large vineyard in
County, and analysis of the
potential of mountain and steep-slope viticulture in
Avery and
belts. We conclude with a review of
how expert systems comprised of GIS,
customized weather forecast data, a
vineyard weather station, and ‘smart dust’
sensors can be effectively utilized
in a region of
altitude viticulture is more
susceptible to regional weather conditions.
Keywords: GIS, viticulture, wine, vineyards, terroir,
models, expert systems
John Boyer, Virginia Tech. Losing Geography:Impacts of
‘False’ Terroir on
the Virginia Wine Industry
While currently topical, the concept known as terroir is not a new concept.
Terroir
refers to the natural and cultural features of a geographically delineated
body of land which interact to
create a unique set of conditions that in turn
confer specific characteristics on
the wines produced there. Key factors include
climate, topography, geology,
soils, varietal selection
and wine-making practices.
In many countries, the identification of viticultural terroir
is undergoing serious
study, due in part to an increasing
demand by consumers for knowledge and
understanding of the origin of each
wine produced. However, in many newer
viticultural
production areas in the
defined by, political borders as
opposed to any real homogeneous natural or
cultural features. This practice is
becoming increasingly problematic for wine
producing areas having to compete
in an ever-increasing globalized
market. The
marketability of over-generalized
products is decreasing rapidly in an industry
where specific wine description for
specific regions and specific vintages has
become the norm. The
modern history. Having grown
successfully and rapidly for three decades, it likely
will begin to stagnate soon due to
increased competition and ‘false’ terroir
labeling, leading to consumer
confusion about what it means to be a ‘
wine.’ This paper provides an
analysis of geographic delineation of the wine
regions in
may already be irreparably damaged
by losing its geography.
Keywords: Terroir,
viticulture, wine, grape,
Terroir of the Wines of
has 15,000 hectares in vineyards.
In 1877 there were 33,000 hectares in
production, but advent of pests,
diseases, urbanization and the lower prices of
foreign wines has reduced the
hectares. Over 35 varieties are grown, but six
varieties make up 95% of the vines
planted in
Riesling/Sylvaner, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and
Merlot. Chasselas
makes up 45% of
the planted area and 60% of the
production, and this white wine is almost unique
to
Romande regions of growth (
area) is the second leading white
wine and has more body, bouquet and acidity
than the Chasselas. It is grown mainly in the Canton Valais
and is marketed under
the label of Johannisberg. Riesling is grown mainly in the slaty soils of the region
near Sion. Riesling/Sylvaner (Muller-Thurgau) (5% of area) is cultivated
in the
German speaking regions of Canton Valais
(cooler climate in the upper valley).
Pinot Noir (27% of area) is the main red variety grown in the
German speaking
parts of the country. Gamay (14% of area) is the second
most productive and is
grown near the
regions of the
main grape.
Keywords:
Apulia or
the east coast from the Promontorio del Gargano in the north to the Salento
Peninsula, often called the Spike or heel of the boot, in
the south. If
a country, it would be the sixth
largest producer of wine in the world. Known for
its production of Primitivo, Negroamaro, Malvasia
Nera, Aglianico and many
other grape varieties, not grown
widely elsewhere,
quantity rather than quality. Many
of the grapes are throwbacks to the early
Greek settlements that once covered this
area. The impact of zonazione,
the
Italian equivalent to terroir, is well illustrated. This is an area that differs from
the stereotypical Italian wine
district in that it is an area of low relief with very
arid conditions caused by its
windward location on the mountainous peninsula.
Great changes have occurred in recent years that
differentiate
Italian regions including the development of extensive vineyard
holdings in
which agribusiness produces huge
amounts of wine in large, modern, technologically
technologically advanced wineries.
Changes in the viticultural
practices and the type of
wines produced are also explored.
Keywords:
Appellations: Designating Viticultural Areas in
Since the establishment of the American Viticultural Areas (AVA) program
of the U. S. Department of Treasury
in 1978, almost 200 viticultural
areas have
been approved, with half of these
in
an approved AVA into smaller
appellations that meet federal requirements and
may stand as approved AVAs? What geographic criteria
are best used? How are
boundary lines drawn? Examples are
given from my research and work with the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Alcohol and
Tobacco Tax and
Trade Bureau for designating smaller viticultural areas within the
Keywords: wine, viticultural
geography, AVA, appellation, terroir,
agriculture,
terroir,
William H. Friedland,
Wine, for some consumers, is akin to religion. As with other
supernatural
thought systems, wine has a number
of “mysteries,” phenomena that have little
or no rational or scientific
explanation. This paper explores the wine epiphany,
the “revelation” of a moment.
Utilizing examples of epiphanies generally, and
wine in particular social and locational factors are seen as
critical to the epiphany
experience even though, as in the
case of wine, it is wine that is subjectively
viewed as causal.
Keywords: wine, epiphanies, social factors, locational factors
Hugh J. Gayler,
in the new countryside
The last 30 years have seen a dramatic shift in the Canadian
wine industry
from a product that one didn’t talk
about in polite society, and never admitted to
drinking, to an awarding-winning
product in international competition. The key
to this success has been the switch
from the local vitis lambrusca to the European
vitis vinifera, the development of
smaller estate and boutique wineries, government
and business intervention, and the
promotion of a wine-drinking public.
Meanwhile, measures to protect the small land base from
urban sprawl and the
farmer from financial exigencies
are aimed at securing the long-term future of
the industry. The development of
over 70 wineries in
important wine region, and a
growing agritourism
industry are testaments to the
new countryside as a place of
consumption as well as production. However,
behind the bucolic landscapes,
media hype and middle-class consumerism lay a
troubled industry. This paper will
explore the reasons for, and possible solutions
to, the many conflict areas
involving grape growers, the small wineries, the two
large wine corporations, and the
various arms of government.
Keywords: Agritourism,
wine industry, new countryside,
Country Production in a Globalizing World
People having been growing grapes and making wine in what is
now
for about 2400 years. Today, there
are about 24,000 hectares under vine
cultivation and cover about 1.2% of
liters of wine are produced
annually. Slovenians consume most of the wine, and
only about 5% is exported. The
country has 3 wine producing regions. Posavje
in
the south and southeast is best
known for Cvicek, a light,
fresh red wine that
normally finds its way to the table
along with homemade cheeses and sausages
when you visit friends or family. Podravje is in the northeast and
is best known
for white wines, especially Laski Rizling and late harvest wines. Primorska is in
the west, bordering the Adriatic
and
both whites and reds. Slovene
wines, several of which have won medals in
international competitions, are not
well known in the
limited production and local
consumption, hence little for export. EU membership
has presented further challenges to
Slovene winemakers by limiting wine production
areas and by opening the Slovene
domestic market to increased foreign competition.
In response, some winemakers formed cooperatives to better
enable export of their
wines. Other wineries concentrate
on improving and producing high quality wines,
while many still focus on
production for personal consumption.
Keywords:
Greig Tor Guthey, PhD,
Wine Conventions in
Deeper relationships, regional knowledge, and common
productive
strategies, broadly known as
conventions, are said underlie economically dynamic
clusters. Places like
generate innovations and suggest
they are “learning economies.” Do Similar sets
of practices and understandings
weave northern
cohesive regional complex? This
paper will focus on the regional conventions of
wine producers and consider their
character.
Keywords: wine, regional development,
Robert N. Gwynne,
strategies of wine firms and local
development impacts in
This paper explores the theme of governance as it relates to
the evolution
of global commodity chains in
agro-industry and their incorporation of wine
firms in
and downstream relationships of key
wine firms in a valley in which vineyard
planting and wine production has
grown rapidly over the past fifteen years in
order to supply export markets. The
paper assesses how this growth of wine
exports has impacted upon local
development and, in particular, local supply
relationships and the behaviour of land and labour markets.
Keywords: Commodity chain, Governance,
David J Hayward,
‘Regional Dynamics in the Globalising Wine Industry: The Case of
The rapid expansion of the
a specific wine commodity form,
Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Global demand
has provided the impetus for
substantial development at the regional level, an
increasingly complex industry
structure, and for the intrusion of international
capital. This paper explores the
contests and relations within the industry
through commodity chains analysis,
wherein recent developments are mapped
onto specific nodes in the
production sequence. As a result the contemporary
situation may be explained through
overlapping organizational and geographic
framings of these relations:
producer versus buyer-driven dynamics; regionalnational
and global interests; and inter-
and intra-corporate strategies. The
commercial contest for control of the
region-varietal commodity
reveals some
paradoxical outcomes in which the
region is reaffirmed as a site of investment in
an evidently globalised industry, and the significance of who
controls what
fraction of the value chain is
reasserted.
Keywords: Wine Industry New
Historical Texts
This paper discusses a methodology to study land use change
from natural
language texts and presents results
from a case study application. Land use is
conceptualized as a collection of
spaces adapted by human activity to serve one
or more goals. Spatial changes in
land use are linked to functional changes of
either the elements associated with
activities or the goals of the activities. The
former may constrain (though
deterioration) or facilitate (through innovation)
the purpose of an adapted space.
The latter reflects the loss of purpose (obsolescence)
or the appearance of a new purpose
(succession). These aspects of land
use change are identified through
textual analysis of a historical collection of
letters written by the managers of
a ranching and agricultural operation on Santa
patterns of activities frequently
associated with place names and geographic
objects, in addition to changes in
these activities, elements, and places over time.
Further analysis identifies relationships between functional
changes at different
levels of spatial granularity. This
includes the innovation of barbed wire following
the deterioration of pastures, and
the succession of vineyards to hayfields
following the disappearance of
wine-making activities and the obsolescence of
vineyards. This study shows how
historical descriptions of everyday activities can
complement more traditional
evidence of land transformations by revealing
functional processes of geographic
change.
Keywords: Land Use Change, Natural Language, Historical
Geography, Rural
Geography
Nancy B. Hultquist, Ph.D.,
2006 Washington State Rattlesnake Hills American Viticultural Area
Geography and topographic maps play a significant role in
the decision of
the
American Viticultural
Area (AVA) as recognized by the U.S. Department of the
Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and
Trade Bureau. March 20, 2006 was the
official recognition of
Hills. Rattlesnake Hills AVA is a
68,500 acre region enclosed in the
AVA, which is a sub-region of the Columbia
Valley AVA. However, in
State most new AVAs
are using names different from “Valley” changing more
appropriately to “Hills”, “Slope”,
or “Mountain”. While juice grapes thrive in
some of the colder wet-soil valley
locations, the own-rooted Vitis
vinifera grape
plants need better draining soils
and the protection from cold air provided by
appropriate slopes. This
presentation includes descriptive geography about the
distinctiveness of place, shows winescapes within the AVA,
mentions the petition
process and how geography played a
significant part, and visits — through
photographs — some of the wineries
and vineyards in the new AVA experienced
in a summer course taught for the
past decade as Wine, A Geographical Appreciation.
Keywords: American Viticultural
Area,
Regions
Greg Jones, Southern
University. Joey
Myers, Southern
Landscapes: A GIS Analysis of the Viticultural Potential inthe
Terroir
is a holistic concept that relates to both environmental and cultural
factors that together influence the
grape growing to wine production continuum.
The physical factors that influence the process include
matching a given grape
variety to its ideal climate along
with optimum site characteristics of elevation,
slope, aspect, and soil. While some
regions have had 100s and even 1000s of
years to define, develop, and
understand their best terroir,
newer regions typically
face a trial and error stage of
finding the best variety and terroir
match. This
research facilitates the process by
modeling the climate and landscape in a
relatively young grape growing
region in
an inventory of land suitability
that provides both existing and new growers
greater insight into the best terroirs of the region.
Keywords: Wine, Climate, Landscape, Terroir, GIS
Julia Kentnor,
and Cooperativism in
This paper explores how neoliberal economic reform in
presented cooperatives with both
potential for success and challenges to survival.
The wine industry in
centralization of decision-making
power. In the wine industry, new standards in
quality and consumer trends stress
the fabric of these cooperatives trying to serve
both the farmers needs and consumer
tastes. Many local cooperatives in the
district of San Rafael produce
basic table wines, even with the best varietals, due
to less advanced machinery. They
are cautious about making capital investments,
weighing market unpredictability
against providing more immediate member
benefits. Their historical
relationship to the wine industry is littered with booms
and busts that coincided with
national politics and consumer tastes. FeCoVitA,
the regional co-op and the
marketing and bottling enterprise of the cooperative
system, succeeded in pulling its
members through the recent financial and
consumption crises in
it to continue to buy from its
member cooperatives while providing a quality
product to consumers. This research
involved in depth interviews with employees
and directors of three wine co-ops
in
numerous community members of
varying professions, agronomists and the
national agricultural extension
agency. Historical data from the national wine
institute showed the impact of the
historical and political underpinnings of
cooperative formation on risk assessment
and benefit provision.
Keywords: Cooperatives,
David Lee, PhD in Geography,
The
Both the
grapes for wines of international
reputation. Popular media describe the
Valley as smaller (correct) and more
rustic and varied in character (not selfevident).
This study uses a variety of cartographic and imagery inputs
to
determine the texture of land use
in the two valleys. The objective is to identify
vineyard polygons on Digital
Orthographic Quarter Quadrangles, to map the size
and shape of vineyards vs.
non-vineyard land, and to arrive at a rational
description and visualization of
the textures of land usages in the two valleys. We
conclude that the
cultivation of grapes interrupted
occasionally by riparian vegetation,
on slopes, settlement forms, and
(rarely) other agricultural land uses. The
vineyards are smaller, and the
non-grape uses are more widespread. This
technique permits the mapping of
vineyards using remotely sensed imagery and
could be used as a first step to
create a topology of viticultural
patterns beyond
these test regions.
Keywords: Wine, viticulture, land-use, geovisualization, cartography,
Denyse Lemaire, Associate Professor,
Wine Region - A Distinctive Terroir
The
and the “Hautes Cotes de Nuits”, the region located between Beaune and
This paper will examine the merits of the southern portion
of
the “Vignobles de la Cote” and the “Hautes Cotes de Beaune”, a region that
includes Meursault, Santenay,
and La Rochepot.
Keywords: Wine, Vineyard
George Franklin, Jr. McCleary,
Unified Government of
GIS, and Teaching the
Geography of Wine
Maps of wine-production areas abound in both scientific
publications
(books, reports, and journals) and
“wine tourism” literature (from brochures and
guidebooks to sheet maps and web
sites). While some are excellent (e. g., James
of the tourism literature is
extremely inefficient for navigation and misleading in
the representation of the location
and extent of wineries and vineyards. There
are few maps that contribute
satisfactorily to the integrated series of maps at
many scales and levels of detail
needed to teach a world-scale course in the
geography of wine. The problems
range from the simple to the complex.
Solutions? Base maps of the
principal wine-producing regions of the world have
been developed on single pages
(letter-size), all on the same projection and at the
same scale - these can be overlaid
easily, facilitating graphic comparison. For the
global view, the Briesemeister Projection provides
a better perspective than the
rectangular projections usually
employed. The technology of Geographical
Information Systems can be structured to accommodate
non-technical (and nonmajor)
students in the class. A “template”
(using ESRI ArcGIS) was
developed,
focusing on the wines of
students in the class to examine
more interesting, more complex, research
problems.
Keywords: cartography, education, GIS, map, tourism, wine
Bernard P Momer,
The Cultural Diffusion of Wineries and the Redefinition
of Rural Economies
in
The origins of winemaking in
patterns of settlers and clergy
members. The early diffusion of wineries across
the continent therefore followed
traditional relocation models. However, with
the evolution of wine making into a
full-blown wine industry over the last 25
years, the spatial diffusion process
of wineries became intertwined with the
redefinition of the rural economy.
An analysis of the opening dates and
geographical distribution of North
American wineries indicates that the recent
spatial diffusion of the wine
industry responds to socio-cultural changes based on
neo-localism and Epicureanism, more
so than to the classic spatial diffusion
models. The data collected have
been triangulated with personal interviews with
wine industry stakeholders to
reveal the importance of the value added tourism
based sector of the industry, where
wine consumption now outranks agricultural
production in these landscapes. Our
findings will contribute to an understanding
of the localised processes involved in the adoption of the
wine industry as a mean
to create and recreate a regional
identity based on the consumption of wine
landscapes.
Keywords: Wine, diffusion, cultural landscape
Zoran Pavlovic,
Although wine has been widely present in
role in Hindu lifestyle fell under
the category of a major religious taboo. In
the origin of wine consumption
followed paths of cultural exchange with Greeks
and later with Romans. Wine also
diffused from
when it was used as a
representative medium to denote status and class at social
events. In southern
Aryans and continued despite Hindu religious laws denoting
alcohol ban on so-called
moral grounds. Sanskrit scriptures
and Hindu beliefs indicated that drinking
was a pathway to distraction from
reaching God-realization. With the European
colonial influence, however, a
major shift occurred in Hindu ideology among the
upper caste members who perceived
wine as an important indicator of status and
class within the Hindu hierarchy.
British colonization not only improved wine
trade but several non-Hindu groups
emerged to facilitate this process. Popular
culture generated major changes in
recent times, both in the area of viticulture,
per se, and as a contemporary
cultural and social phenomenon. Increased impact
from South Asian Diaspora and
globalization on
wine consumption among all sections
of Hindu population as a facet of interaction
with the Western world.
Keywords: wine, hinduism,
cultural system,
Joseph B. Powell, U.C.
An Example from the Vinho Verde Region of
In this paper I use the concepts of hybridity and socionatural
landscape
production to explore the notion of
the wine region as a socionatural
process
understood through the theoretical
construct of the “edible landscape.” The
edible landscape refers to both a
physical setting and the social relations between
humans and non-humans that are
co-produced in dialectical relationship with this
setting and which render it
consumable and reproducible through food. A focus on
the edible landscape of northwest
reveals wine regions as unfolding
within the broader socionatural
networks of
food production and consumption in
which wine-related activities are embedded.
In this case, the key processes include cultivation,
harvesting and consumption of
maize (Zea mays
L.), a companion crop to wine grapes in northwest
the context of the edible landscape
framework, wine regions can be understood as
a specialized subset of routines,
practices, knowledges and
social relationships
within wider geographies, or
landscapes, of food production and consumption.
This perspective allows the analysis and interpretation of
wine regions to
account for “non-wine” actors and
processes that nevertheless play a functional
role in producing wine regions. The
paper illustrates and elaborates on these
points with visual data from
ethnographic fieldwork in the
northwest
Keywords: edible landscapes, socionature, vinho
verde, northwest
Katherine F Pritchard, Virginia Tech. Lisa M. Kennedy,
Virginia Tech.
John D Boyer, Virginia Tech. A New Map to Promote Tourism
in
Wine Region
The
continue to promote the over 100
wineries in the state. Maps are often used to
promote tourism in wine regions,
and show the location of wineries, the
surrounding areas, and directions
to the wineries. We are interested in determining
the effectiveness of the map in
terms of its goal of promoting tourism in the
state’s wine region, and we
question the usefulness of the current
industry’s map for a tourist. The
original map has several cartographic elements
that do not follow cartographic
principles, and it appears to be overwhelming and
difficult for the reader to focus
in on the important information. We propose to
develop a new map that improves map
readability and usefulness. Here we
present the results of a
preliminary survey of tourists of the
to discover the specific elements
of the current map that tourists find confusing
and awkward, and which elements
they find useful. We will use the results to
produce a tourist map that will
excite the user and bring increased tourism to the
wine industry of
improving the legibility of the
map. The improvements of the new map will be
compared to the problematic
elements in the current map.
Keywords: wine, cartography, tourism
Timothy J. Rickard,
in the Rural-Urban Fringe
The theoretical binary opposition between conventional
agriculture and
alternative agriculture is far from
distinct in the rural-urban fringe. Conventional
producers can exploit the diverse
urban and suburban niche markets that define
alternative agriculture.
Alternative agriculture is itself increasingly heterogeneous
in rural-urban fringes such as
campaign implements the basic forms
of alternative agriculture. Direct marketing
via farm stands, pick-your-own and
65 farmers markets have brought together
the producers and consumers of
fresh local food. Organic farming is usually
alternative but becomes
conventional when sales are to supermarket chains.
Dairy farmers can receive contracts from local supermarkets
or sell ice cream to
tourists to diversify. Agritourism allows farmers to
stretch the definition of
agriculture.
grapes out-of-state and
diversification includes hay rides, corn mazes, wedding
facilities and golf courses.
Alternative agriculture also includes horticulture and
direct retailing of greenhouse and
nursery products although the latter generates
more than half the state’s income
largely through wholesaling. The heterogeneity
of farm enterprises is matched by
the mosaic nature of
remaining farmland which, if saved,
will enhance lifestyle rather than produce
commodities.
Keywords: alternative agriculture,
William Todd Sealy. Michael Pretes, PhD,
Is There a Beer Terroir?
Terroir
is a French term that recognizes the geography of place in wine
production. The concept of terroir relates directly to the
physical geography of
wine production but also implies
the labor and history behind the vineyard.
Physical geography is unique to a particular wine’s
production, so that even if the
process of vinification were copied in a different location the
quality would not
be replicated. There is an ongoing
discussion in the beer community concerning
whether the concept of terroir can be applied to beer.
This study will investigate
whether the geographic concept of terroir can be applied to beer. Terroir will be
tested by examining ingredients used
in artisanal beers, brewing
locations, and
geographical aspects of ingredients
(e.g., water mineral content). Standard tasting
terms derived from internet and
industry journal sources will be used to assess
taste differences. Our conclusions
suggest that many artisanal
beers reflect their
distinctive geographic locations
and that the concept of terroir
can be applied to
beer.
Keywords: beer, terroir,
wine, cultural geography
Tony B Shaw, Ph.D,
Sub-Appellations in the
This study used climatic and topographic data to
characterize the subappellations
that have been recently delineated
in the
viticulture area and assessed their
potential for ripening early to late season Vitis
vinifera
varieties. To determine whether each sub-appellation possesses a unique
set of climatic characteristics
that are likely to influence grape quality, the study
analysed
such factors as the length of the growing season with a threshold
temperature >10oC, the mean
daily temperature distribution, the diurnal
temperature range and fluctuation,
distribution of heat units, and frequency of
occurrences of maximum temperature
Keywords:
Angie Evans Wood, Ph.D.,
A Geographical Analysis of Industrial Clusters
After it had more or less disappeared in the mid-twentieth
century (Cooke,
2002), cluster theory has reemerged as one of the dominant
paradigms in the
advanced economies of the world.
There are many reasons for this, but one of
the most important factors in the
resurgence of industrial cluster theory has been
the explosive growth of
globalization in economic and business activity. This
author looks at the truth behind
industry clusters. Are they a true phenomenon,
or just a fortunate product of
location? Who benefits from this so-called cluster
and why would anyone want to become
a part of it? Are industrial clusters fact or
farse?
This paper draws from available research literature, research fieldwork
(with focus on the
documentation.
Keywords: clusters; industry; location; wine; tourism