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Viticulture

Text quoted from http://www.eichangins.ch/francais/viticulture.html( 30 jul.2001)

Géographiquement et historiquement, les modes de culture de la vigne sont multiples. Ils sont le plus souvent le résultat empirique d'observations et d'expériences. Aujourd'hui les progrès technologiques permettent de les comparer scientifiquement et d'imaginer de nouveaux systèmes encore plus performants. Ainsi, les cultures de l'avenir seront celles qui apporteront le meilleur microclimat lumineux et thermique aux feuilles et aux grappes. Pour la production de raisins de qualité, l'ingénieur doit effectuer le choix du mode de culture avec celui d'un porte-greffe et d'un cépage (clones) adaptés au terroir, et intégrer le tout en fonction des contraintes économiques.

La mécanisation des travaux viticoles et arboricoles ne cesse de progresser grâce à l'ingéniosité des praticiens , concepteurs et constructeurs spécialisés. L'ingénieur HES doit se tenir au courant de cette évolution irréversible et doit être capable de l'intégrer au service de l'amélioration constante du rapport qualité-prix des produits.

L'enseignement des sciences de la terre mène à la compréhension des phénomènes liés au sol et il permet l'apprentissage des techniques propices au maintien de la fertilité. De la lutte contre l'érosion à la fumure dirigée, du drainage à l'irrigation, l'étude de ces techniques tient en permanence compte du respect de l'environnement. L'intégration progressive de l'écologie dans le champ d'étude contribue à l'amélioration des produits. Liée à cette notion de qualité, l'étude du terroir, pièce maîtresse de l'adéquation climat-sol-plante, répond à un besoin grandissant d'authentification.

Wine growing

Wine growing techniques vary with time and locations and are thus numerous. More often than not, they result from empirical field observations and experiments. With today's technological means, these techniques are scientifically compared, and new even more efficient systems are invented. Therefore, the growing techniques of the future will provide leaves and grapes with the best luminous and thermal microclimate. To produce quality grapes, the engineer has to combine an appropriate growing technique with a selection of rootstock and type of grape (clone) relevant to the soil, while taking the economical constraints into account.

The automation of viticultural and arboreal activities is steadily improving thanks to the ingeniuity of specialized experts, designers and manufacturers. Engineers must keep on top of this irreversible progression and be able to use it to improve constantly the value of the products.

Education in Earth Sciences leads to understanding the influence of the soil and paves the way to learning how to maintain fertility. From the fight against erosion to the planning of manure, from drainage to irrigation, respecting the environment is always an issue in the study of these techniques. Progressively integrating ecology with their application contributes to improving the products. Linked to the notion of high quality, a thorough study of the soil structure is a key step in mastering the crop growing system and the solution to a growing need for authentification.

Discussion of terminology and resources used for this translation:

viticulture, cépage:

http://sun-recomgen.univ-rennes1.fr/FR-Eng.html#Dico viticulture( 30 jul.2001) :
viticulture = vine growing, wine growing.
Some of the "dictionary" entries are based on users' submissions. All information is non official.

http://eurodic.ip.lu:8086//cgi-bin/edicbin/expert.pl
( 30 jul.2001)
Eurodicautom is the multilingual terminological database of the European Commission's Translation Service. Therefore provides an "official" European translation.
viticulture= wine growing, culture of the vine, vine culture
cépage:vine variety, variety of vine

http://www.itsmysite.com/cgi-bin/itsmy/go.exe?page=3&domain=1&webdir=vitfaq
( 30 jul.2001)
viticulture glossary -> glossaire de la viticulture.
This is an anglophone site mostly made from the interviews of several American wine growers, which makes it quite reliable regarding the accuracy and use of the terms, thought the author claims it is not flawless.

The above sites provide us with three possible translation of "viticulture" that would be relevant in our text. To make the best choice, I did some research on the uses of "vine growing", "wine growing" and "viticulture":

http://www.beaujolais.net
( 30 jul.2001) (bilingual site)
vine growing = La Culture de la Vigne
grape variety, vine variety = cépage

http://www.exclusively-cyprus.com/vine.htm( 30 jul.2001) (Greek site in English)
vine growing: the cultivation of vine
http://www.chablis-geoffroy.com/( 30 jul.2001) (French site in English)
vine growing is used as opposed to wine making.
grape variety = cépage

The above sites use the term "vine growing" as they address issues relative to "viticulture". However, they are not from English speaking countries, so it is possible that a non native English speaker wrote them, intuitively using "vine growing" instead of "wine growing".

http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/ ( 30 jul.2001) (American site)
This is the site of the University of California department of Viticulture and Enology.
"Viticulture" seems to be used for "the science of "Grape growing" , "grape growing" being used here as Wine/Vine growing in other sites.
When doing a search for "wine growing" it occurs in most sites in expressions such as "wine growing region" and "wine growing area" which would be "région viticole" in French. However, it can also be used as a translation of "Viticulture" as in this American site: http://www.agro.bayer.com/index.cfm?PAGE_ID=346 ( 30 jul.2001) about "wine growing" in California.
The site also mentions "viticultural activities", that seems a good translation for "travaux viticoles".

Finally, the three terms seem correct and widely used, but I discarded "viticulture" because it seems to refer to the theoretical aspect of wine growing as a science, and I chose "wine growing" because it appears in official sources, whereas vine growing (and "grape growing") do not.
I also chose "vine variety" as a translation for "cépage" because the text specifically mentions it in a grafting context, which refers more explicitly to the plant than to the fruit.

porte-greffe
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/grafting.html( 30 jul.2001)
This web site offers a detailed guide to grafting including pictures and technical terms. We can therefore deduce that "rootstock" is an appropriate translation for "porte-greffe", and "scion" would be the adequate term for "greffon".

clone:
Numerous sites refer to "vine clones" to describe how a particular wine was made. For example, on the American site http://www.lundsgift.com/wine.html( 30 jul.2001)
we find: "This old vine Zinfandel is from 100 year old vine clones which produce some of the softest and most flavorful zins that you have ever tasted." Therefore, "clone" in French can be translated by "clone" in English.
The term "clone" is also listed in the "Viticulture Glossary" as a term frequently used in viticulture to refer to a selected variety of vine

arboricole:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/otherreg/SI-96-36/index.html( 30 jul.2001)
The official web site of Canada's Department of Justice is a bilingual site containing a Proclamation Designating the Maple Tree as National Arboreal Emblem of Canada . -> "arboricole" = "arboreal"

sciences de la terre:
"Earth Science" is one of yahoo!( 30 jul.2001)'s science categories, so we may take this as a translation of "sciences de la terre".
Moreover, http://www.earthsci.unibe.ch/earthsci.htm ( 30 jul.2001) is the home page of the Earth Sciences departement of the university of Bern, Switzerland. It shows that "Earth Sciences" include geology, which is the study of soil composition that is refered to in our text.

fumure dirigée
After a search on a few research engines, It seems that the expression "fumure dirigée" does not occur in any other documents. In fact, "fumure"and "manure" are used as equivalent terms in various sites, including the official web site of the Agricultural department of the government of Canada. "Fumure dirigée" seems to refer here to manure planned and managed by the farmer.


July 2001