Climat et sol: critères d’évaluation et effets sur le comportement de la vigne

Grape composition is of high interest for producing quality wines. For that, grape analyses are necessary, and they still require sample preparation, whether with classical analyses or with NIR analyses.

Wines differ from each other based on seven different factors: the type of grape; the bedrock geology and resulting soils; the climate; the soil hydrology; physiography of the site; the winemaker and the vineyard management techniques. The first five of these factors make up what the French call terroir, “the taste of the place”.

Esca, one of the main grapevine trunk diseases, is a complex and poorly understood disease. Phaeoacremonium minimum and Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, two of the main pathogens associated to this disease, are thought to be responsible for the first trunk infections. Little is known concerning grapevine trunk defenses during pathogen infection.

Multi-mineral wine profiling and artificial intelligence: implementing the signatures of each wine to train algorithms to meet the new challenges facing the wine industry. Although their quantity is minimal, minerals are essential elements in the composition of every wine. Their presence is the result of complex interactions between factors such as soil, vines, climate, topography, and viticultural practices, all influenced by the terroir. Each stage of the winemaking process also contributes to shaping the unique mineral and taste profile of each wine, giving each cuvée its distinctive characteristics.

Grapevine breeding is part of the research program of Agroscope in Switzerland since 1965. From 1965 to 1995, the aim of the Vitis vinifera crosses was to obtain a high resistance to grey rot (Botrytis cinerea), one of the most virulent fungal pathogens in the Swiss vineyard. In 2021, the grape varieties released from this first breeding program covered 936 ha of the 15’000 ha of the Swiss vineyard.
In 1996, a second breeding program aimed at obtaining, by classical interspecific hybridization, grape varieties resistant to downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) and powdery mildew (Erisyphe necator) and less sensitive to grey rot (Botrytis cinerea). In order to accelerate and make the selection process more reliable, an early biochemical test was developed based on the natural defense mechanisms of the vine against downy mildew (stilbene phytoalexins). The synthesis of stilbenes (i.e., resveratrol and its oxidized dimers - and -viniférine) and pterostilbenes (methylated derivative) is among the most efficient induced defense mechanisms of grapevine against fungal pathogens on both the leaves and the clusters.