WINE QUALITY AND TERROIRS - INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS ON THE GEWURZTRAMINER FLAVOR PROFILE

The Alsacian vineyards show a high variability of landscape and the la rge variation of ecogeopedologic factors can be studied by choosing Vi neyard plots, which are described as ''basic terroirs'', Five represen tative vineyard plots were selected because of their diversity in orde r to determine the influence of environmental characteristics on the w ine flavor profile. Vine growing, harvesting date and must treatments were equally standardized. All experiments were carried out with a gew urztraminer cultivar, Site origin strongly affects grape harvest yield , precocity, density and must acidity. Sensory descriptive analysis al so showed large variations of wine organoleptic quality, from neutral character to full expression of grape-variety. Volatile aroma compound analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry confirmed the ma jor role played by terpenols as varietal character and the complexity of volatile phenols contribution. Multiple factor analysis (MFA) ident ified significant links between three groups of data, sensory descript ive terms, aroma compounds content and their relative proportions. MFA clearly discriminated the five wines, according to there originating vineyard plots.