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Terraced Vineyards in Europe: The Historical Persistence of Highly Specialised Regions

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World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life

Part of the book series: Environmental History ((ENVHIS,volume 9))

Abstract

This contribution analyses the spread, origin and evolution of the most important European terraced viticulture complexes. Found in Mediterranean, Atlantic and continental areas, the terraces dedicated to viticulture owe their localisation to recurring geographical–environmental and historical movements in the different regions. Proximity to market outlets and to waterways were the key elements in their origins and distribution. The reasons behind the construction of the great viticulture terraced areas then guided the evolution of their twentieth-century history. In terms of the elements involved, the most influential inherited factors appear to be strong land fragmentation and the early entry into favourable commercial circuits.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “In quella parte di paese, ed è la massima, dove allignano le vite, lo studio degli abitanti è volto principalmente alla loro coltivazione, per essere il vino l’unico mezzo da introdurre denaro nella provincia”.

  2. 2.

    “Non risparmia per esso fatiche e dispendj, fino qualche volta, a portare il terreno sul più ripido del monte o del colle, e sostenerlo a forza di muriccioli che, spesso crollati, convien poscia ricostruire”.

  3. 3.

    On the other hand, such a description closely recalls that of the model of terraced vine cultivation observed by Montaigne in Tuscany two centuries earlier. Talking of the countryside of Lucca, he wrote, “On ne peut trop louer la beauté et l’utilité de la methode qu’ils ont de cultiver les montagnes jusqu’à la cime, en y faisant, en form d’escaliers, de grand degrés circulaires tour autour, et fortifiant le haut de ces degrés, tantôt avec des pierres, tantôt avec d’autres revêtemens, lorsque la terre n’est pas assez ferme par elle-même. Le terre-plain de cet escalier, selon qu’il se trouve ou plus large ou plus étroit, est rempli de grain. Et son extrémité vers le vallon, c’est-à-dire, la circonférence ou le tour, est entourée de vignes; enfin, partout où l’on ne peut trouver ni faire un terrein uni, comme vers la cime, tous est mis en vignes” (One cannot praise too much the beauty and utility of the method which they have of cultivating mountains up to the top, making thereof in the form of staircases great circular steps all about them and reinforcing the higher parts of these steps both with stones and with other revetments when the earth is not solid enough on its own. The level ground of this staircase, according as to whether it is wider or narrower, is full of grain and its extremity towards the valley, that is to say the circumference of the circuit, is encircled by vines. Finally, wherever one cannot find or make a continuous land for cultivation, as towards the crest, everything is set to vines) (de Montaigne 1889: 444).

  4. 4.

    Linked to the necessity for expanding viticulture are the works carried out at the end of the eighteenth century to alter the Portuguese course of the Douro, in the stretch through the Valeira gorges. These works enabled major viticulture exploitation of the slopes in the upper reaches of the valley (d’Abreu 2007). For the advantages given to viticulture around Vienne by the eighteenth-century engineering works on the course of the Loire, see Gadille (1978).

  5. 5.

    Obviously, this does not exclude the development of viticulture in valleys of contrary orientation, as in the important case of the Adige valley.

  6. 6.

    The most significant minimal rainfall of this valley, around 500 mm annually, is measured in the area of Aosta, therefore further to the west compared to the location of what is today the most important productive terraced system of the region.

  7. 7.

    “contro i vini lombardi e ‘padani’ per favorire lo smercio in sede locale, ma soprattutto verso le regioni transalpine (in direzione di Briançon e della sua regione) del vino prodotto in zona, arrivando agli inizi dell’età moderna ad una diffusione della viticoltura (con terrazzamenti, oltre che con intensivi impianti in fondovalle) certo anomala rispetto al contesto ambientale”.

  8. 8.

    The systems of demarcation instituted in the first half of the eighteenth century in Chianti and Tokaj were of different origins.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Luca Bonardi

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  1. Luca Bonardi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Mauro Varotto

  2. Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Luca Bonardi

  3. Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy

    Paolo Tarolli

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Bonardi, L. (2019). Terraced Vineyards in Europe: The Historical Persistence of Highly Specialised Regions. In: Varotto, M., Bonardi, L., Tarolli, P. (eds) World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life. Environmental History, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96815-5_2

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