In vitro tissue culture as a tool for Croatian grapevine germplasm management

Advanced knowledge on grapevine row orientation is required to improve establishment, management and outcomes of vineyards on terroirs with different environmental conditions (climate, soil, topography) and in view of a future change to more extreme climatic conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine the combined effect of row orientation, plant water status and ripeness level on the physiological and viticultural reaction of Shiraz/101-14 Mgt.

Limited information is available on grape wall-derived polymeric structure/composition and how this changes during fermentation. Commercial winemaking operations use enzymes that target the polysaccharide-rich polymers of the cell walls of grape tissues to clarify musts and extract pigments during the fermentations. In this study we have assessed changes in polysaccharide composition/ turnover throughout the winemaking process by applying recently developed cell wall profiling approaches to both wine and pomace polysaccharides. The methods included gas chromatography for monosaccharide composition (GC-MS), infra-red (IR) spectroscopy and comprehensive microarray polymer profiling
(CoMPP) using cell wall probes.

Long-term studies on grapevine phenology have clearly demonstrated that global warming is affecting phenological events, leading to an anticipation in their timing, and negatively impacting grape yield and berry quality. Therefore, dissecting the genetic determinants involved in the plant regulation of the phenological stages of budburst, flowering, veraison and ripening can improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms and support plant breeding programs and the advancement of vineyard management strategies.
We report here the results of a QTL mapping experiment conducted on three segregating populations obtained from the crossing of ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ and ‘Corvina’, ‘Corvina’ and the hybrid ‘Solaris’ and ‘Rhine Riesling’ and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’.

Vineyards are complex agro-ecosystems with high spatial and temporal variability. An efficient training system may counteract the adverse effects of this variability. Moreover, considering the climate change issues, choosing an efficient training system that enhances water use and protects the vines from radiative thermal stress has become a priority for the farmers. A multidisciplinary approach that assesses the soil-crop-yield-wine relationships of vineyards in a distributed and holistic way could bring added knowledge on the behavior of the different training systems. This ongoing research aimed to implement a multidisciplinary approach to study the behavior of “Aglianico del Vulture” grapevines trained with two different systems: a spurred cordon (SC) and an “Alberello in parete” (AL), grown in a high-quality wine production area of Basilicata region (Italy). The approach merged several methods and scales of soil, ecophysiology, must/wine quality, and spectral data collection to assess the influence of the training system. Homogeneous zones (HZs) in both training systems were defined through a procedure based on geomorphological classification, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) images analysis, and a traditional soil survey supported by geophysical scanning. During the 2021 season, TDR probes monitored soil water content, while grapevine health status was assessed using eco-physiological measurements (LWP, chlorophyll content, PSII photosynthetic efficiency, LAI, and point-based field spectroscopy). These grapevine in-vivo measurements validated the spectral vegetation indexes (NDVI, RENDVI, CVI, and TVI) derived from the UAV multispectral imagery, which monitored the grapevine status in a distributed and non-invasive way. Grape yield, quality of berries, must and wine were measured to assess the effects of the training systems. The first experimental year results showed the variability of the vineyards and revealed relationships among soil parameters, crop characteristics, and vegetation indices of the SC and AL training systems. This multidisciplinary study could bring new insights into the vineyard training system’s effects on grape yield and wine quality.

Vintage is part of « terroir ». The aim of this work is to study, through vine and berry parameters, the effect of vintage on the three major red grape varieties in Côtes du Rhône : Grenache N, Syrah N and Mourvedre N. We first characterized vintages 1997 to 2003, highlighting similar features in grape development across the different cultivars since 2001 only.