Aims: Soils are an intrinsic feature of the landscape and have influenced culturally and economically important terroir delineation in many wine-producing regions of the world. Soil physiochemical properties govern a wide array of ecosystem services, and can therefore affect grapevine health and fruit development. These physiochemical properties can reflect a combination of factors,

A gradual decline in vineyards has been observed over the past twenty years worldwide. This might be explained by the climate change, practices change or the increase of dieback diseases. To increase the longevity of vines, we studied the impact of different pruning strategies in four adult and four young vineyards located in France and Spain. In France, vineyards were planted with Cabernet franc on 3309C while Spanish trials were planted with Tempranillo grafted on 110R. Vegetative expression, yield, quality of berries and wood vessels conductivity were measured. The distribution of vegetative expression, yield and berry composition between primary and secondary vegetation were quantified. Finally, tomography was used to evaluate the implication of the treatments on sap flows.
First results show that i) the respectful pruning leads to an increase of 30 to 50% more secondary shoots than the aggressive pruning in France and between 15 and 20% in Spain, ii) there is no major effect on the yield over the first two years following the implementation of the new pruning practices, although the proportion of clusters from suckers is higher on the respectful pruning method. On young vines, the development of the trunk according to a respectful pruning leads to a loss of harvest 2 years after planting. This is due to the removal, on the future trunk, of the green suckers which carrying bunches. This operation carried out in spring rather than during winter pruning, would promote a better leaf / fruit balance when the plant comes into production, and could lead to better hydraulic conduction in the vessels of the trunk. Maintaining these trials for several years will provide more robust data to assess the impact of these practices on the vines over the long term.

Knowledge of vine reaction to plant spacing under high potential soil conditions is restricted. This study was done to determine effects of vine spacing

Enological tannins are a diversified group of winemaking products that vary in several aspects such as chemical composition, botanical origin, and production method. In consideration of their richness in phenolic compounds, one of their main application in vinification is related to their antioxidant capacity, in particular their ability to consume oxygen during red wine maturation.

The SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS1 (SOC1) is a key floral activator that coordinates external and internal stimuli to ensure timely flowering. During early stages of flower formation, SOC1 represses floral organ identity genes such as AGAMOUS (AG) to prevent premature organ differentiation. In addition to floral organ specification, AG has been shown to regulate fleshy fruit expansion and ripening and, as such, is an important contributor to fruit quality traits. Currently, little is known about the function and gene regulatory network of the grapevine homologs VviSOC1a and VviAG1. As such, the aim of this study was to functionally characterise both genes by overexpressing them in tomato and performing phenotypic and gene expression studies.