Soil and climate functional characters for grape ripening and wine quality of "Vino Nobile di Montepulciano"

The paper presents the results obtained from a methodological interdisciplinary study realised with the aim of setting the viticultural vocation of the "Vine Nobile di Montepulciano" territory and zoning the vineyards. The study provided for climate monitoring, soil biological, physical. chemical, hydrological characterisation, as well as soil survey and cartography. Moreover, a large set of winegrape characteristics was measured during the vegetation of vines and at the harvest. Finally, the wines obtained by the standard techniques for small-lot winemaking winery, have been sensory analysed. The trial showed the importance of environmental characteristics to define the quanti-qualitative answer of the winegrapes. in particular it specified the fertility conditions of different lots and the relative oenological answer of the wines. So, the most fertile soils, those lacking permanent limitations to crop cultivation, owing to excessive productivity, provided the worst viticultural and oenological results. On the other hand, the best results could be obtained in quite fertile soils, but with some pedological limitations. The least fertile soils. those which have been more or less eroded, produced always less than the better preserved ones. but with very variable oenological results according to the influence of the year.