“Garrigues”, part of the mediterranean vine terroirs

Currently, grapevine is host to a large number of pathogenic agents, including 65 viruses, five viroids and eight phytoplasmas. Needless to say, these pathogens, especially viruses responsible for several ‘infectious degeneration’ or ‘decline’ cause great distress to wine makers and grape growers, let alone the large economic losses incurred by the wine industry. A recent addition to this wide repertoire of grapevine viruses is a new viral disease known as Red Blotch in viticulture parlance. Its causal organism, Grapevine red blotch associated virus (GRBaV), discovered in 2008 is a newly identified virus of grapevines and a putative member of a new genus within the family Geminiviridae.

Water is one of the most limiting factors for viticulture in Mediterranean regions. Former researches showed that water shortage hampers both vegetative and reproductive developments. INRA is running programs to breed varieties carrying QTL of tolerance to major fungi, i.e. powdery and downy mildews. Some varieties have been already certified or are close to be certified. However, little is known about the response of these varieties to water deficit, which behavior is critical for their development. This study characterized physiological responses of 4 new varieties to water deficit and described relationship between them.

Context and purpose of the study. As other perennial crops grapevine is facing the challenges of climate changes. One of the major issues is global warming and variations of the water budget.

Methyl-jasmonate (MeJA) induces the production of at least 25 compounds with sesquiterpene- like mass spectra in ‘Cabernet sauvignon’. Tost effective concentration of MeJA in stimulating the production of sesquiterpenes was found to be 500 µM if added when the cell suspensions had a PCV of 35 %, and 1000 if added when the cell suspensions had a PCV of 70 %.

This work is a first step to make a map of vineyard soils. The characterization of the soils of the Protected Designation of Origin (D.P.O.) Valdepeñas will allow to group the studied profiles according to their physico-chemical characteristics and the concentrations of most relevant chemical elements. 90 soil profiles were analysed throughout the territory and the soils were sampled and described according to FAO (2006) and classified according to and Soil Taxonomy (2014). All samples were air dried, sieved and some physico-chemical parameters were determined following standard protocols. Also, major and trace elements were analysed by X-ray fluorescence. The statistically study was made using the SPSS program. Trend maps were made using the ArcGIS program. The studied soils have the following average properties: pH, 8.3; electrical conductivity, 0,20 dS/m (low); clay, 18.8% (medium) and CaCO3, 17.1% (high). In the study for the major elements. The major elements of these soils are Si, followed by Ca and Al, with an average content of 203.7 g/kg, 105.5 g/kg and 74.0 g/kg respectively. On the other hand, 27 trace elements have been studied. Of all of them, it can be highlighted the average values of Ba (361.8 mg/kg), Sr (129.3 mg/kg), Rb (83.4 mg/kg), V (74.2 mg/kg) and Ce (70.6 mg/kg). Ba, V and Ce values are higher and the values of Sr and Rb are lower to those found in the literature. The discriminant analysis shows a percentage of grouping of 91%. The content of chemical elements together with the physico-chemical characteristics allows grouping the soils in 4 group according to their order in the classification to Soil Taxonomy; due to the importance of the Calcisols in Castilla-La Mancha, it has been decided to establish them as their own group even if they do not appear in Soil Taxonomy classification.