At the beginning of ripening, grape berries switch their water import pathway from the xylem to the phloem. However, the cause of the decline in xylem inflow remains a matter of debate. Applying xylem-mobile dye in conjunction with root or shoot pressurization demonstrated that the direction of xylem flow was reversible and responded to pressure manipulation.

In the context of climate change, clones could be a way of adaptation and need to be investigated. Repositories of clones are primarily dedicated to diversity maintenance while specific experimental plots with replicates are designed for clone characterization. However, all these field experiments are time consuming and expensive to maintain.

Grapevines of the variety Vitis vinifera L. cv. Pinot Noir (clone 9-18, grafted onto 5BB) were subjected to different water regimes (irrigation treatments) over the growing season. Physiological indicators were used to monitor the plant water status (leaf and stem water potentials and relative carbon isotope composition (13C) in must sugars).

Climate change has become a threat to wine industry due to increases in temperature and reductions of water in Mediterranean climates. Therefore, it is necessary to improve our knowledge about mechanisms conferring resistance to water shortages in grapevines varieties, especially at the leaf level which includes the evaporative sites in plants and experience the highest water tension through their hydraulic systems.

The environmental sustainability of viticulture can be enhanced with the application of proper management practices (e.g. grassed inter-row), which can lead to an increase of soil carbon sequestration.

In contrast to malic acid, few studies relate to the metabolism of tartaric acid (TA) under abiotic stress in ripening berries. TA biosynthesis is well known with its metabolism believed to be limited from berry set until véraison and therefore not impacted by ripening conditions.

Climate change projections show major changes regarding temperature: a global warming with an increase average temperature and in frequency and severity of punctual heat events. Such changes in temperature will significantly affect the grapevine growing cycle and the bunch microclimate, known to be a major regulator of grape metabolism.

Grapevine production in Chile is facing increasing water deficit problems related to aridization. We studied the use of rootstocks as a strategy for enhancing the performance of cv. Syrah (Sy) and Cabernet Sauvignon (Cs) grapevines under water deficit.

Grape acreage has been expanding rapidly in the cold regions of the U.S. However, the economic sustainability of the grape industry is hampered by freezing damage. It has long been established that sugars play a role in mediating freezing tolerance (FT) in grapes.

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.