CHANGES IN OENOCLIMATE APTITUDE INDEX CHARACTERIZING CLIMATE SUITABILITY OF ROMANIAN WINE GROWING REGIONS

The oenoclimate aptitude index (IAOe) reveals climate suitability for wine production in temperate climate conditions. For Romanian wine regions its values were quite stable throughout the years, indicating the possibility of practising certain types of wine production. In the last decades the IAOe values have increased. By using gridded data at 0.1 degrees resolution of temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration for the entire Romanian territory, we calculated the IAOe averages for the 19611990 and 1991-2013 periods for 50 wine-growing centers which are representative for the Romanian viticulture. The results indicate that the IAOe mean at Romanian viticulture area level is currently of 4629 units, 270 units higher than the ones between 1961-1990. Due to this increase, the IAOe averages for the wine-growing centers from Moldova, Muntenia, Banat, Crisana and Southern regions have passed during the recent decades to values corresponding to an upper suitability class for wine production. In the wine-growing centers from Transylvania, the IAOe maintains in the range of suitability for white table wines, while for the ones from Dobrogea and Danube Terraces the IAOe maintains in the range of suitability for quality red wines. The study provides the scientific support needed for the re-evaluation of the wine type production practiced within Romanian wine growing-centers.