Viticultural climatic characterization of Vojvodina wine-growing unit (Serbia) and its wine-growing regions

Jelena KOKOVIĆ1*, Mladen KALAJDŽIĆ1, Dragoslav IVANIŠEVIĆ1, Nada KORAĆ1, Ana VUKOVIĆ2, Mirjam VUJADINOVIĆ MANDIĆ2, Darko JAKŠIĆ3, Pierfederico LA NOTTE4

1Department of Fruit science, Viticulture, Horticulture and Landscape architecture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Dositeja Obradovića Sq 8, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia2 Department of Fruit Science and Viticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade, Nemanjina 6, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia

3 Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental protection, Nemanjina 22-26, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia4 CNR – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Via Amendola 165, 70126 Bari, Italy

*Corresponding author’s e-mail address: jelena.kokovic@polj.uns.ac.rs

Results

Table 1: Location of meteorological stations in Vojvodine wine-growing unit, number of analyzed years within1961-2010 period, and average annual air temperatures and precipitations

Meteorological station

Region* Latitude Longitude Altitude (m a.s.l.)

Number of years analyzed

Average annual air temperature

(°C)

Average annual precipitation

(mm) Bačka Topola 4 45°81'67" 19°65'00" 100 32 11.3 559.7 Bečej 6 45°63'33" 20°03'33" 78 44 11.4 593.8 Bela Crkva 2 44°90'00" 21°41'67" 90 40 11.7 673.2 Kikinda 7 45°85'00" 20°46'67" 81 50 11.3 556.7 Palić 5 46°10'00" 19°76'67" 102 49 11.1 560.2 Senta 6 45°93'33" 20°08'33" 80 47 11.7 572.8 Sombor 3 45°76'67" 19°15'00" 87 50 11.1 602.5 Sremska Mitrovica 1 45°01'67" 19°55'00" 82 50 11.4 620.3 Sremski Karlovci 1 45°20'00" 19°95'00" 130 42 12.1 587.6 Vršac 2 45°15'00" 21°31'67" 84 50 11.6 655.4 Zrenjanin 7 45°40'00" 20°38'33" 80 50 11.4 576.6

*1 – Srem region, 2- South Banat region, 3 – Bačka region, 4-Telečka region, 5 – Subotica region, 6 – Potisje region, 7 - Banat region.

Figure 1: Maps of Average Growing Season Temperature (AVG), Thermal Index of Winkler (WIN), Biologically Effective Degree Days (BEDD), Heliothermal Index of Huglin (HI), Cool Night Index (CI) and Drought Index (DI) over Vojvodina wine-growing unit and its wine growing regions

BackgroundIn the last two decades, there is an evident revival of viticulture in Serbia. The quest for improvements in order to keep the pace with advanced countries in this sector initiated two important projects and their results present a milestone for development of viticulture in Serbia. The Census of Agriculture, conducted in 2012 by Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia within IPA project “Instruments for Pre-accessions Assistance”, collected data on current situation in agriculture and viticulture. At the same time, after more than 40 years, new geographical zoning of viticulture production areas in Serbia was performed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management within the Twinning project “Capacity Building and Technical Support for the renewal of Viticulture Zoning and for the System of Designation for the Wine with Geographical Indications”.According to the new geographical zoning of viticulture production areas in Serbia, there are three wine-growing units in the country. The wine-growing unit of Vojvodina covers the territory of AP Vojvodina up to Belgrade to the north side of the rivers Sava and Danube. It includes 7 wine growing regions: Srem, Subotica, Telečki, Potisje, Banat, South Banat, and Bačka, with a total of 5032 ha of vineyards which represents 22.7% of all vineyard surfaces in Serbia (Ivanišević et al. 2015). Climate in Vojvodina wine-growing unit is moderate continental with cold winters, and hot, humid summers with well distributed rainfall patterns. Knowledge of the spatial variation in temperature in wine-growing regions provides the basis for evaluating the general suitability for viticulture, allows the comparison between wine regions, and offers growers a measure of assessing appropriate cultivars and sites (Jones et al. 2010). Although much is known about the climate of Vojvodina, the use of spatial climate data to conduct regional assessments of the climate have been limited. Hence, the aim of this paper was to present systematically important climatic information of Vojvodina wine-growing unit and its different regions.

Materials and MethodsClimate analysis is made on the basis of daily data obtained from 11 meteorological stations within Vojvodina wine-growing unit (AP Vojvodina, Serbia) for the period from 1961-2010. Location of the stations, number of analyzed years, and average annual air temperatures and precipitations are given in Table 1.Several bioclimatic indexes used for zoning of viticulture areas used in previous studies (Huglin 1978, Gladstones 1992, Tonietto and Carbonneau 2004, Jones et al. 2010) were calculated: Average Growing Season Temperature (AVG), Thermal Index of Winkler (WIN), Biologically Effective Degree Days (BEDD), Heliothermal Index of Huglin (HI), Cool Night Index (CI) and Drought Index (DI). The georeferenced maps for regions within Vojvodina wine-growing unit and for each bioclimatic index were digitized (contour lines) in QGIS.

According to the obtained AVG values for Vojvodina wine-growing unit, regions can be classified into three classes (Jones et al. 2010): region with cool climate (SE part of South Banat region), intermediate (Bačka region), and warm climate-variety maturity type. The latter class covers the majority of surfaces within the regions of Vojvodina wine-growing unit. All seven regions covered in the study had no significant differences in BEDD, and the values ranged between 1307.9-1391.2°C. The same result was obtained for HI where all seven regions had relatively spatially homogeneous values. Consequentially, all regions of Vojvodina wine-growing unit belong to the temperate warm class (2100-2400°C) according to the HI. Tonietto and Carbonneau (2004) stated that regions belonging to this class of viticultural climate have no constrains to ripen all cultivated varieties, with the exception of seedless varieties. Combined with CI, HI permits a good discrimination of the region climate, as regards global heliothermal conditions during the vegetative cycle of the grape and cool night conditions during the ripening period. Based on the CI, all regions were classified into “very cool night” group. The exception was SE part of Srem region, which falls into “cool night” class. Under these CI conditions, grapes could be found with a high potential for color and aromas, but their positive effect depends on a heliothermal potential that could ensure a good level of grape ripening for a given variety (Tonietto and Carbonneau 2004). In fact, most of the regions with good reputation of white wine production are in this class of viticultural climate (Tonietto and Carbonneau 2004).Region II of WIN classification is found broadly throughout Vojvodina wine-growing unit. Southern part of Potiski region and NE part of Srem region were classified as Region III of WIN region formulation, and thus making them favorable for high production of high quality wines (Jones et al. 2010). Concerning DI, the regions of Vojvodina wine-growing unit are classified as humid and sub-humid regions. Tonietto and Carbonneau (2004) defined these two groups of viticultural climate as conditions typical of the “absence of dryness”, with a high level of water balance availability and a tendency to excess in relation to the quality and normally best ripening of grapes can be found in less humid years.

LiteratureGladstones J. 1992.Viticulture and Environment. Winetitles, Adelaide.Huglin P. 1978. Noveau mode d’évaluation des possibilités héliothermiques d’un milieu viticole. C R Acad Agr de France, 64: 1117-1126.Ivanišević D, Jakšić D and Korać N. 2015. Winegrowing Atlas (in Serbian). Republički zavod za statistiku, Belgrade, Serbia.Jones GV, Duff AA, Hall A and Myers W. 2010. Spatial Analysis of Climate in Winegrape Growing Regions in the Western United States. Am J Enol Vitic 61:313-326.Tonietto J and Carbonneau A. 2004. A multicriteria climatic classification system for grape-growing regions world-wide. Agric Forest Meteorol. 124:81-97.

ConclusionsThis paper presents systematically important climatic information of Vojvodina wine-growing unit and its different regions indicating that these regions have relatively spatially homogeneous climates. Moreover, it emphasizes the complexity of viticultural zoning and characterization, and thus the use of simple temperature-based index is not sufficient to make general conclusions about given wine-growing region. A more comprehensive study, using more realistic indices should be performed in order to have a more precise view of viticultural climatic characterization of wine-growing regions.