The contribution of near surface geophysics to measure soil related terroir factors in viticulture: A review

Abstract

Wine quality is affected by environmental factors in the location where the vines are cultivated, in particular the soil and the climate. Major soil-related factors influencing vine development, yield, and berry composition (and thus wine quality) include soil water availability, soil temperature, and soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen. These can be impacted by soil depth and soil compaction. Mapping these factors with classical field-based methods is constraining and expensive. Near surface geophysics (NSG) can be useful in increasing the resolution of data acquisition and, possibly, its cost. Among these techniques, many are already commercially available, but some of them, including Magnetic Resonance Sounding, Induced Polarization and Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves, require a high degree of expertise for acquisition and processing. These should be further developed in order to enlarge the application possibilities. This article reviews soil-related parameters relevant to terroir expression in vineyards and how these can be measured with NSG techniques.

Keywords

• Viticulture
• Terroir
• Soil water
• Soil temperature
• Soil nitrogen
• Near surface geophysics