Identification of the agronomical and landscape potentialities in Côtes du Rhône area (France)

Tempranillo Tinto (TT) is the third-most planted red wine variety in the world, and it is mostly grown in the Iberian Peninsula. Spontaneous somatic variation appearing during vegetative propagation can be exploited to improve elite varieties as Tempranillo Tinto, including the selection of new phenotypes enhancing berry quality. We described previously that a somatic variant of TT with darker fruit color, the clone VN21, exhibits increased extractability of polyphenols during the winemaking process. To unravel the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon, we performed whole-genome resequencing to compare VN21 to other TT clones, revealing a 10 Mb deletion in chromosome 11 that likely affected only the L1 meristem cell layer of VN21 and tissues derived from it, such as external cell layers of berry skin.

To meet the demand of assessment tool of water managers we adapted to the vine production the INDIGO® method to developed initially for arable farming at the field scale.

Climate change is having a significant impact on the wine industry through more regular drought conditions, fires, and heat events, leading to crop loss. Furthermore, these events can reduce overall quality of the fruit, even when crop yields are not impacted. Anthocyanins are considered one of the most important classes of compounds for red wine production and are known to be sensitive to vine water status and heat events.

Vitis vinifera is the most grown grapevine species, which originated about 6 million years ago in the trans-caucasian area as the ancestral (wild) type v. Vinifera spp. Sylvestris. On the other hand, the human being (homo sapiens) is much younger since he originated about 300.000 years ago in north africa.

The use of varieties tolerant to diseases is a long-term but promising option to reduce chemical input in viticulture. Several important breeding programs in Europe and abroad are starting to release a range of new hybrids performing well regarding fungi susceptibility and wine quality.