Swiss wine producers are faced to high production costs and low-priced wine imports.

In problematic conditions for production of grapes and wine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting occurrence of wine surpluses, producers are increasingly turning to the innovative viticulture and winemaking of products that are more appealing to the market and the consumers. On the other hand, consumption of the food safety or organic products, and therefore of organic grapes and wine, is increasingly common in the world, in particular in Europe. The Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG RRD), as a regional intergovernmental organization gathers actors in the viticulture and winemaking sector from states and territories of the Western Balkans (South-East Europe) in the Expert Working Group for Wine, with the aim of improving viticulture and winemaking in this region through joint activities. In accordance with the aforementioned, the SWG RRD is working on advancing organic production of grapes and wine, and on recognition of specificities of the terroir of wine-growing areas in Western Balkans. In addition, as part of the project “Facilitation of Exchange and Advice on Wine Regulations in Western Balkan Countries” helmed by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in addition to harmonization of relevant legislation with EU regulations, efforts are being invested towards recognition of organic wines. Within activities and project implemented by this organization, expert analyses and scientific research of the terroir of Western Balkans were carried out, and some of the results are presented in this paper.

For a long time, cool climate grapevine breeding has striven for early ripening cultivars to adapt to the former climate conditions.

Three-dimensional functional-structural root architecture models, which decompose the root system architecture (RSA) into elementary developmental processes such as root emission, axial growth, branching patterns and tropism have become useful tools for (i) reconstructing in silico the spatial and temporal dynamics of root systems in a soil volume, (ii) analyzing their genotypic diversity and plasticity to the environment, and (iii) overcoming the bottleneck associated with their visualization and measurement in situ. Here, we present an original work on RSA phenotyping and modelling in grapevine. First, we developed 2D image-based analysis pipelines to quantify morphological and architectural traits in young grafts. Second, we parametrized and validated the 3D root model Archisimple on two rootstock genotypes (RGM, 1103P) grafted with V. vinifera Cabernet-Sauvignon and grown in different controlled conditions (rhizotrons, pots, tubes).

Le chargement et l’accumulation des sucres ainsi que la biosynthèse des phénols ont été étudiés sur la Syrah, dans le cadre d’un programme de recherche de paramètres qui permettraient de déterminer une ou plusieurs qualités de raisin en relation avec des styles de vins pour un terroir donné. La relation entre la dynamique d’accumulation des