1. 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
1
Department of Fruit science, Viticulture, Horticulture and Landscape architecture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Dositeja Obradovića Sq 8, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
2
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, Serbia
4
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
Background
In 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 Methods
Climate 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.
Literature
Gladstones 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.
Conclusions
This 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.