«Aztec» – the new white table grape resistant variety

Nowadays, winemaking is dealing with great challenges, notably climate change, disease resistance and low pesticide inputs, desire for more sustainable agricultural productions and permanent changing of consumer preference.

Seven plots located in the commune of Montigny-lès-Arsures (Jura, 39), planted with grapevine varieties Trousseau and Savagnin, were chosen for a study of soil pits and a distribution of major and trace chemical elements in soils and wines. It was shown that the mineral matrix of the soil reflects the geological substratum and the sub-surface alteration process, while the organic soil matrix depends on agro-viticultural practices.

In this video recording of the IVES science meeting 2025, Marine Morel (EGFV, Univ. Bordeaux, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, INRAE, ISVV, Villenave-d’Ornon, France) speaks about the role of rootstock and its genetic background in plant mineral status. This presentation is based on an original article accessible for free on OENO One.

In viticulture, the concept of terroir is often used to enlighten the environmental-based typicity of grapevines grown in a local area however its scientific basis remains under debate. Grape polyphenols as key player of the plant defense system enables adaptation to environmental changes and so far, form a unique metabolic component to investigate the terroir influence.

Sixty five % of the agricultural area of the Basque Country located in the DO Ca Rioja corresponds to vineyards. More than 40% of it has an average slope greater than 10%, which makes it sensitive to erosive processes. Furthermore, it is foreseeable that extreme weather events (storms, hail, extreme heat and cold, etc.) will be favored due to climate change. Cover cropping can mitigate this risk, and therefore the objective of this work is to evaluate the impact that a vegetable cover has on the agronomic behavior of the vineyard, the quality of the grape and soil erosion. For this, a trial has been carried out with a Graciano variety vineyard with a slope between 10% -20% during the years 2020 and 2021. Conventional tillage management in the area has been compared (4-6 passes per year of tillage machinery) versus spontaneous vegetation cover management in the vineyard. This implies not tilling and allowing the grass of the land to colonize the range between the lines of vines, controlling their height through 1-3 mowing passes per year, always trying to affect the surface of the land as little as possible. The vegetative growth, yield and quality of the grape and wine was measured. Furthermore, erosion has been measured using Gerlasch boxes. The yield was lower in the second year of the trial in the cover crop treatment, but erosion was significantly reduced.