摘要：The municipality of São Joaquim, located in the PlanaltoCatarinense viticultural region, is the coldest wine-growingregion of Brazil, and contains the highest-altitude vineyards inthe country. These vineyards were established within the last20 years, so this is a young and still-developing viticulturalregion. Information on the terroirof São Joaquim is needed inorder to identify potential vineyard sites and to help improvethe viticulture in the region. This work aims to characterize theterroir of São Joaquim, where wines are produced from grapescultivated above 900 m of altitude, through a description andanalysis of meteorological, physiographic, pedological, geolog-ical and viticultural factors. With respect to these factors, theSão Joaquim region presents the following characteristics:1 It has an annual mean temperature of 13ºC, annual meanprecipitation of 1680 mm/year and an annual mean solarradiation of 1832 hours/year.2 It has altitudes between 715–1638 m and generally steepslopes, 43% of the slopes have declivities between 20–45%and show no preferred orientation.3 It has both deep (> 150 cm) and shallow (< 100 cm) soilswith clayey texture, an average pH (water) between 4.68–5.52 and an average soil organic matter (SOM) content of6%.4 It is underlain by two units of volcanic rocks. These are amafic unit (50.53–55.09 wt.% SiO2) and a felsic unit(66.58 –70.12 wt.% SiO2). The mafic unit tends to consistof thicker flows than the felsic unit and is characterized bygenerally steeper slopes.5 There is a correlation between the geological unit and thesoil types, in which thicker inceptsols are preferentiallydeveloped on the mafic volcanic rocks and thinner entisolsare preferentially developed on the felsic volcanic rocks.6 Currently, the region produces more than 27 grape varietiesplanted mostly on the Paulsen 1103 rootstock. The existingvineyards are mostly underlain by the mafic volcanic unit inareas of steep north-facing slopes.
