VitExpress, an open interactive transcriptomic platform for grapevine

The traditional pruning system in Piedmont (North-West Italy) is the Guyot system; it requires trained personnel, difficult to find, and it does not permit the mechanization of winter pruning, thus it is very expensive. An alternative technique that could allow the reduction of the vineyard management costs could be the spur-pruning which is simpler to perform and fully mechanized.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of landscapes in the notoriety and marketing of wines and in tourism promotion, specifically in the case of two centenary Portuguese demarcated regions

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.

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.

A relevant trend in winemaking is to reduce the use of chemical compounds in both the vineyard and winery.