Exploring diversity of grapevine responses to Flavescence dorée infection

Several studies demonstrated how climate and soil may be key drivers of variability at different scales.

Concepts such as typicality are difficult to demonstrate using the limited set of samples that can be subjected to sensory evaluation. This is due both to the complexity of the concept and to the limitations of traditional sensory evaluation (number of samples per session, panel fatigue, the need for multiple sessions and methods, etc.). On the other hand, there is a large amount of data already available, accumulated through many years of consistent evaluation. These data are held in repositories (such as Platter’s Wine Guide in the case of South Africa Wine, wineonaplatter.com) and in technical notes provided by the producers.

Grapevine powdery mildew resistance is a key target for grape breeders and grape growers worldwide. The driver of the USDA-NIFA-SCRI VitisGen3 project is completing the pipeline from germplasm identification to QTL to candidate gene characterization to new cultivars to vineyards to consumers. This is a common thread across such projects internationally. We will discuss how our objectives and approaches leverage big data to advance this initiative, starting with genomics and computer vision phenotyping for gene discovery and genetic improvement. To manage and maintain resistances for long-term sustainability, growers will be trained through our nation-wide extension and outreach plan.

Residual grape solids (suspended particles) in white and rosé musts vary depending on the clarification pro-cess. These suspended solids contain lipids (more especially phytosterols) that are essential for yeast meta-bolism and viability during fermentation in anaerobic conditions.

In order to study the impact of climate change on Bordeaux grape varieties and to assess the behavior of candidate grape varieties potentially better adapted to the new climatic conditions, an experimental vineyard composed of 52 grape varieties was planted in 2009 at the INRAE Bordeaux Aquitaine center[1]. Among the many parameters studied since 2012, berry weight for each variety was measured weekly from mid-veraison to maturity, with four independent replicates. The kinetics obtained allowed to study berry growth, a key parameter in grape composition and yield.