The impact of global warming on Ontario’s icewine industry

Trichoderma is one of the most widely used fungal biocontrol agents on vineyards due to its multiple benefits on this crop, such as its fungicidal and growth promoting capacity. In this work, we have analyzed the effect on the concentration of nutrients in grapevine leaves and on the quality of the grape must after spraying an autochthonous strain of Trichoderma harzianum and one of the main secondary metabolites produced by this genus, 6-pentyl-α-pyrone (6PP).

A wide range of olfactory descriptors ranging from fresh and jammy fruit notes to cooked and oxidized fruit notes could describe the fruity aroma of red wines [1]. The fruity character of a wine is mainly related to the grape variety selected, to the terroir and the vinification process applied for its conception. In white wines, some volatile compounds confer directly their aroma to the wine while the question of “key” compound is more complex in red wines. According to many studies performed over the past decades, some fruity ethyl esters are directly involved in the fruity perception of red wines while others, present at subthreshold concentrations, participate indirectly to the fruity expression via perceptive interactions [2].

In the Cognac region in France, Ugni blanc is the most planted grape variety (98% of the 80 500 ha). This vine region is in expansion due to the success of the associated well-known brandy and the need of high grape yield to guarrantee the production of base wine for distillation. About 2 to 3000 ha are newly planted each year and rootstocks are one powerfull tool for vineyard adaptation to soil or climate change. As rootstocks ensure water and mineral nutrient supplies to the scion, it is important to better understand their effect on berry compostionnal parameters such as sugars and nitrogen compounds, which are the main precursors for fermentary aroma metabolites, the latter being quality markers for Cognac after distillation.

Bud fruitfulness is a key component of reproductive performance of grapevine. It plays a significant role in annual yield variation of vineyards as it is a prerequisite of crop production in the following season. Various exogenous and endogenous factors influencing the development of inflorescence primordia (IP) have been studied. However, the research on molecular genetic control of bud fruitfulness, especially how it interacts with environmental factors is still lacking. This study aims to investigate the molecular mechanism of effects of temperature and light on grapevine bud fruitfulness during initiation and differentiation of IP.

In this work, we present a method based on very high spatial resolution (VHSR) aerial images acquired in the visible domain and that map soil surface diversity at the hillslope