The 20th GiESCO International Meeting is held in Mendoza (Argentina), November 5-10, 2017.
Water limitation is one of the major threats affecting grapevine production. At the same time, grapevines are highly subjected to different viruses from which Grapevine leafroll associated virus-3 (GLRaV-3) is one of the most widespread ones.
The effect of grapevine age on growth and berry development was studied from 2014 to 2016 on an experimental vineyard managed by the Hochschule Geisenheim University in Geisenheim, Germany. The vineyard was initially planted in 1971 with Vitis vinifera (L.) cv. Riesling grafted on 5C Teleki.
Climate change scenarios predict increases in the frequency and severity of droughts in arid zones. Under these conditions some plants can rapidly acclimate to stress and further fortify their defenses by retaining memories of stress which enable stronger or more rapid responses if an environmental perturbation recurs.
Grape berry splitting results from excessive tensile stress that builds on the skin. The thin shell theory describes splitting resistance of grape berries as the maximum internal pressure at the point of splitting. Quantifying this relationship in genetically diverse Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel, and Concord grapes enabled us to determine cultivar differences and understand developmental changes in splitting resistance.
Global warming is representing a major challenge for Mediterranean agriculture. Improving irrigation and identifying or obtaining varieties tolerant to water scarcity are being constantly pursued. In this research we contrasted 5 varieties commonly cultivated in many wine-growing areas (Merlot, Garnacha, Shyraz, Malvasia and Muscat of Alexandria) with other five varieties mainly cultivated in Andalusia, Spain (Palomino fino, Rome, Doradilla, Tinto Velasco and Pedro Ximénez).
Flowers and berries abscission (coulure) can lead, during some vintages and for sensitive cultivars, to dramatic yield losses with detrimental impacts on the wine industry. Many exogenous and endogenous factors are known to favor defaults in reproductive development and coulure, among which extreme temperatures and carbon imbalances play a major role.
Malbec is the most important grape variety cultivated in Argentina. In Mendoza, at 1450 m asl, the intensity of natural ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation is high and causes a significant increase on polyphenol content in berries.
In tropical regions, grapevine plants are not usually exposed to extreme low temperatures over the production cycle. As a result, bud break is nonuniform and sprouting is inconsistent. To cope with this, Hydrogen Cyanamide (Dormex®) is used to break bud dormancy and provide uniformness to the vineyard.
There is an increasing interest by the wine industry to know the performance of new winegrape cultivars in traditional areas to find out which cultivars could better complement the traditional wines. In warm areas, isohydric cultivars and high yields are sought in order to save water and to delay maturity.
Gene expression and phenotypic characteristics of plants grown in contrasting environments can be modulated through different epigenetic mechanism such as DNA methylation. This epigenetic mark may act in a dynamic way in response to different environmental conditions were high altitude vines are developed.