FIRST CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DEFINITION OF THE “CINQUE TERRE” DOC WINES TERROIR (NW-ITALY)

Terroir is the greatest determining factor of all great wines. The acknowledgement of the territory vocation is founded on the research of its peculiarities that determine the uniqueness of that production area. In this paper, results concerning the first contributions to characterize terroir environment components and wines in Cinque Terre National Park are presented and discussed. GIS was used to improve the process of landscape characterization. Several profiles from four distinct production vineyards were selected for full pedological description and analysis. Moreover, a solar-powered field station connected to multiple sensors was installed to monitor the soil moisture content and temperature. Finally, the wines (Cinque Terre DOC) from 2014 vintage of the four distinct production vineyards, in which the soil characterization was performed, were analyzed. Biochemical characteristics and total content of phenols were determined. The analyses conducted highlight a number of distinctive features of soils and wines from Cinque Terre vineyards and the usefulness of an accurate description of soils and wines proprieties in the perspective of the implementation of the official DOC Cinque Terre wines production protocols.