Great highlands wine growing terroir: conditions and expressions

L’A.O.C. Muscat de Rivesaltes prévoit l’utilisation de 2 cépages Muscats : le Muscat à petits grains (M.P.G) et le Muscat d’Alexandrie (M.A).

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.

Botrytis cinerea, a well-known grapevine pathogen, has more than 1200 host plants causing grey rot in grapevine berries. However, it can also result in a desirable phenomenon called noble rot under specific microclimate conditions. An extraordinary demonstration of this natural process can be observed in the creation of aszú wines within Hungary’s Tokaj wine region. Beside B. cinerea other fungi and yeasts are involved in the secondary metabolic development of the grape berry which contributes to the sensory and analytical characterization of noble rot wines.

Soil management through cover crops can influence the cycle of nutrients, promote water infiltration, decrease erosion, and enhance the soil microbiota biodiversity, improving the grapevine performance. However, the area under the vines tends to be left bare by applying herbicides or tillage to avoid competition with the crop in semi-arid climates. Use of covers under-vine might be an alternative to these practices aiming at grapevine quality and soil health improvement. The aim of this research was to study the implications of soil management under the vines (cultivation and cover crops) on growth, yield, berry composition and soil microbial communities. A cover crop composed by a mixture of legumes was sown and compared with a control (cultivation), which includes frequent tillage to keep the soil bare, in three areas characterized by different edaphoclimatic conditions in the region of Navarra.

Cyprus is one of the very few phyloxera-free areas worldwide where the vast majority of vines are own-rooted and non-irrigated. ‘Xynisteri’ is a predominant indigenous cultivar, particularly amenable to extreme conditions such as drought and hot climate, thus rendering it appropriate for marginal soils and adverse climatic conditions. In the current work, a comparative study between irrigated (irrigation initiated at BBCH 71) and non-irrigated vines was conducted.