Emerging Sustainable Practices in Cool Climate Viticulture: A Case Study from Sweden

Several classes of markers, such as SSR, Inter SSR, AFLP and RAPD, were used for genotyping more than 1200 vines (grapevine, rootstock and Vitis species). Based on these data an identification system could be established. With six of the most polymorphic markers all grapevine cultivars were differentiated. Currently, we are using ten SSR loci to identify cultivars for grapevine nurseries and growers. Characterization of more than 300 cultivars with up to 40 SSR markers allowed a profound insight into the genetic relationship of grapevine cultivars cultivated in Austria. We were able to define the origin of several cultivars from crossings of more ancient cultivars, as a consequence we obtained information about successful hybridization strategies. We could recognize two specific incrossing events to the existing genepools in Central Europe. Furthermore, we were able to identify the grapevine families of Veltliner, Pinot and others, the reconstruction of pedigrees helps to elucidate the occurrence of numerous cultivars with genetically very similar and morphologically identical background. For regions with cool climate viticulture we could define Traminer and Heunisch as the two key cultivars, which can be seen as responsible for the development of several other cultivars. Deviations in the inheritance of SSR markers enabled us to recognise genetic modifications occurred during hybridization. Considerations on the appearance of anomalies are usually neglected although they could provide a lot of information on the development of new types or cultivars. Wine growers prefer to cultivate sensorial typical clones of traditional cultivars for wine production. In the past, however, there was no guarantee that delivered material corresponded to the ordered clone. The reason for this deficiency was the lack of an identification system for clones. Therefore, we established clonal differentiation by RAPD and Inter SSR markers. Additionally, identification of clones was possible by using null alleles of SSR markers. These null-alleles are very rare and require a large amount of markers to characterize ten clones of White Riesling.

Response of agricultural multifunctionality to farmland loss under rapidly urbanizing processes in Yangtze River Delta, China

The dynamic fluctuations in autumn temperatures, particularly the marked diurnal variations and the subsequent precipitous drops are key and a pivotal role in viticulture, as they critically influence the acclimation process of grapevines to cold, thereby directly impacting their survival and productivity in cold-climate regions. In this comprehensive study, we investigated the cold hardiness of four grapevine cultivars: 'Itasca', 'Frontenac', 'La Crescent', and 'Marquette', focusing on how these cultivars and their individual buds (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th) respond to fluctuating weather and low temperatures typical of autumn [-1.1°C (30°F) -9.4°C (15°F) and -17.8°C (0°F)]. Our results illuminated the striking variability in cold hardiness that was manifest not only among the different cultivars but also within individual buds on the same vine, underscoring the critical influence of bud position on a vine for cold hardiness. 'Frontenac' showed greater cold hardiness at critical temperatures at which 10%, and 50% of the dormant buds were lethally affected by cold (LT10 and LT50) compared to 'Itasca' and 'La Crescent', with 'Marquette' exhibiting intermediate values. However, in cultivars such as 'Itasca' and 'Marquette', certain buds demonstrated a pronounced hardiness when faced with colder temperatures, while others exhibited a heightened sensitivity, thereby revealing a nuanced interplay between bud position and a vine's ability to withstand cold stress. Our study revealed a notable divergence from traditional viticulture understanding; apical buds demonstrated greater cold hardiness than basal buds and opened new paths for research into grapevine physiology. Our results also indicated a significant trend wherein older vines across all studied cultivars displayed enhanced cold hardiness, particularly pronounced at the critical LT50 and the critical temperature at which 90% of the dormant buds were lethally affected by cold (LT90) thresholds, in comparison to younger vines. Moreover, our findings shed light on the impact of autumn's diurnal temperature variations and the subsequent drop in temperatures on vine cold hardiness, thus highlighted the complex interplay between environmental temperature dynamics and dormant bud hardiness. In conclusion, our study showed that the cold damage observed in grapevines in North Dakota was not a result of extreme temperature fluctuations in the fall. This was confirmed by testing the vines after they had reached various threshold temperatures through differential thermal analysis (DTA) and optical differential nucleation and expansion analysis (ODNEAL) methodologies, particularly before the onset of severe pre-winter cold conditions. These comprehensive findings highlighted the complexity of the vine's response to climatic conditions and viticultural management, pointing to the need for specific strategies in vineyard management and cultivar selection to optimize bud hardiness and productivity in the face of various environmental challenges, especially in cold climate viticulture.

Due to global warming and the effects associated with it, the wine industry is facing important challenges during the winemaking process and the production of high-quality wines. In this study, mistelas and naturally sweet wines were produced with the ‘Pedro Ximénez’ grapevine cultivar, overripened by sun drying and fermented with and without the presence of grape skins. Some oenological parameters related to alcoholic fermentation and low-molecular-weight polyphenols and furans were considered. Naturally sweet wines with skins presence showed a higher value of viable biomass than those with grape skins absence. However, in terms of density and ethanol production, sweet wines with grape skins absence presented lower and higher values, respectively, than the other elaborations. No significant differences in the organic acids and low-molecular-weight polyphenols and furans contents, with respect to the presence or absence of grape skins, were observed. In this sense, this research proves that the production of sweet wines from sun-dried grapes with the presence/absence of grape skins during alcoholic fermentation could be a possible choice in areas where agro-climatic conditions make it possible.

Plant reproductive development has evolved to ensure reproductive success. However, in crop species, genetic variation in reproductive development has also been targeted from domestication to current breeding programs to improve the production of fruits and seeds. In grapevine, genetic variation in reproductive developmental processes such as flower induction and initiation, inflorescence and flower development, and gamete, embryo and seed development have direct implications on most production traits, including fertility, cluster weight, cluster compactness or berry weight, but also on quality traits such as skin-to-pulp ratio or seedlessness. Lack of sexual reproduction in traditional wine-grape cultivars has allowed the accumulation of mutations that affect gamete development and viability as well as embryo and seed development. Mutations that would be lost through purifying selection in natural populations can provide interesting quality traits in grapevine cultivars. In this way, genetic variation decreasing gamete viability is behind low seed number per berry, berry size and cluster compactness phenotypes, current quality goals in clonal selection for low production and loose clusters. This trait can have negative consequences, depending on environmental conditions. Complete absence of gamete viability is behind some forms of parthenocarpic development, as in the case in the origin of ‘Corinto’ raisins. Genetic variation impairing ovule and seed development seems to be behind stenospermocarpic seedlessness, a main quality trait in table-grape breeding. All these examples point out how understanding the processes of grapevine reproductive development and particularly the existing genetic variation for these traits can help to develop more suitable and adapted cultivars for both wine and table grape production.

The recent release of interspecific hybrid grape cultivars that are hardy for the northern climates of the United States has led to a rapid expansion of the grape and wine industry in the Upper Midwest, as well as other cold-climate regions. These cultivars often exhibit high vegetative vigor and possess fruit quality concerns when their grapes are to be used in wine production. Adaptation in the viticultural practices used to produce the grapes may help to improve fruit quality for winemaking, which could promote increased sales and profitability of the grape and wine industry in the Upper Midwest. This study examines the effectiveness of three canopy management practices to improve irradiance within the fruiting zone of the grapevine canopies of Frontenac, La Crescent, and Marquette grapevines, and their impact on fruit quality for winemaking. The labor required completing the management practices, irradiance, harvest variables, and fruit quality were measured. All canopy management practices required additional labor and provided increased irradiance into the fruiting zone. However, the increased irradiance did not correspond to improved fruit quality. These effects varied across the different cultivars, and no overall relationship between increased labor and increased irradiance or between increased irradiance and improved fruit quality was established across the cultivars. While Frontenac vines required an average of 5.6 additional minutes of labor per vine for any canopy management practice, the practices increased irradiance by about 10.1%. La Crescent vines required an average of 4.4 additional minutes of labor per vine for any canopy management practice and the practices increased irradiance by 16.5% on average. Marquette vines required an average of 7.7

Climatic changes on the global level have consequences in changes of meteorological and climatologic conditions in vinegrowing areas. The aim of this paper was to analyze trends of the meteorological elements and determine suitability of growing grapevine cultivar in a viticulture region. Trend analysis was done, based on the data for South-Banat sub-region, an important resource for the production of grapes and wines in Pannonia plain (Vrsac: H=83m, ?=45 09 N, ?=21 19 E). Trend of significance for the 95% level of confidence for mean air temperature and sunshine duration was obtained for the May - June period. For those elements, trend was increasing as well as for the precipitation in September. Correction of cultivar list was recommended, considering the obtained trends of the meteorological elements. The grapevine cultivars that ripen earlier (table and wine cultivars) are recommended, as well as those created at the Faculty of Agriculture, Department for Viticulture. .

In the article, the state of use of production potential in the development of industry in the regions and the possibilities of its use were studied. Currently, in carrying out economic reforms in the Republic, the main task is to ensure macroeconomic stability, increase the size of the gross domestic product, effectively use its factors, and improve the structural structure of the economy. During the research, the role of the industry in several regions of our country was studied through statistical data and the necessary recommendations were made.

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is an economically important crop that needs to comply with high quality standards for fruit, juice and wine production. Intense plant protection is required to avoid fungal damage. Grapevine cultivars with loose cluster architecture enable reducing protective treatments due to their enhanced resilience against fungal infections, such as Botrytis cinerea-induced gray mold. A recent study identified transcription factor gene VvGRF4 as determinant of pedicel length, an important component of cluster architecture, in samples of two loose and two compact quasi-isogenic ‘Pinot Noir’ clones. Here, we extended the analysis to 12 differently clustered ‘Pinot Noir’ clones from five diverse clonal selection programs. Differential gene expression of these clones was studied in three different locations over three seasons. Two phenotypically opposite clones were grown at all three locations and served for standardization. Data were correlated with the phenotypic variation of cluster architecture sub-traits. A set of 14 genes with consistent expression differences between loosely and compactly clustered clones—independent from season and location—was newly identified. These genes have annotations related to cellular growth, cell division and auxin metabolism and include two more transcription factor genes, PRE6 and SEP1-like. The differential expression of VvGRF4 in relation to loose clusters was exclusively found in ‘Pinot Noir’ clones. Gene expression studies were further broadened to phenotypically contrasting F1 individuals of an interspecific cross and OIV reference varieties of loose cluster architecture. This investigation confirmed PRE6 and six growth-related genes to show differential expression related to cluster architecture over genetically divergent backgrounds.

Vine growing and wine production is gaining in popularity around the Baltic Sea Region. The first aim of the experiment was to determine the variability of the total phenolic and anthocyanin content (from 2010 to 2018) and of individual anthocyanin content (from 2016 to 2018) in the hybrid grape cultivars ‘Hasansky Sladky’, ‘Zilga’, and ‘Rondo’. In field conditions ‘Rondo’ had winter cold damage to canes in two years. Therefore, the second aim was to determine the effect of high polyethylene tunnel and field conditions on fruit total and individual anthocyanin content of ‘Rondo’ from 2016 to 2018. Over nine years, the total phenolic content ranged from 192 to 671 mg 100 g−1 and anthocyanins from 30 to 405 mg 100 g−1 spectrophotometrically. The anthocyanin (delphinidin-3-O-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, petunidin-3-O-glucoside, peonidin-3-O-glucoside, malvidin-3-O-glucoside) content depended on cultivar properties and climatic parameters. Antioxidant activity was cultivar dependent and ranged from 40 to 88%. Polytunnel cultivation increased the content of total anthocyanins in ‘Rondo’ from 447 to 1472 mg 100 g−1 (by chromatographically) in cooler year, but in warmer years it decreased from 3645 to 1618 mg 100 g−1. Individual anthocyanins showed the same tendency. Grapevine cultivar ‘Rondo’ is recommended for tunnel growing in very cool climate conditions.

Challenges of climate change on the future grape and wine production are widely discussed in science and in the wine industry with the goal to maintain a consistent must and wine quality in the future. Therefore, the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2)—as one of the relevant greenhouse gases jointly responsible for a changing climate—was investigated concerning the composition of must and wine made of two grapevine cultivars V. vinifera L. cvs. Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon within the established VineyardFACE (Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment) experiment. Must and wine analysis were conducted in three consecutive years (2014–2016) by analyzing standard must and wine parameters, e.g., total soluble solids (TSS), pH, total acidity (TA), organic acids (e.g., tartaric acid, malic acid, shikimic acid, citric acid, volatile acid and gluconic acid) or total phenolics (TP). Also, for both cultivars CIELab coordinates (L* for lightness, a* as green/red and b* as blue/yellow components) were used to test colour in young white and red wines. Additionally, total anthocyanins and monomeric indices were analyzed for young wines of the red cultivar Cabernet Sauvignon. With marginal differences between CO2 treatments, the composition of must and young wines was not found to be negatively influenced by an eCO2 concentration.

The aim of the present work was to investigate the effect of early leaf removal and cluster thinning treatments in the Mediterranean climate on berry growth and how these two techniques affect phenolic profile (especially proathocyanidins) and color characteristics for later wine production. The study was conducted in 2011 in Podgorica, Montenegro. Two grapevine cultivars were selected to compare different ability in flavonoid accumulation: Vranac, with moderate accumulation and Cabernet Sauvignon, usually showing very good accumulation of polyphenols. Four treatments were compared: only leaf removal, only cluster thinning, leaf removal combined with cluster thinning, and no treatment that was used for control (control set). Early defoliation reduced the yield in both varieties. In Cabernet Sauvignon, defoliation initially delayed berry growth, but at the end, defoliation slightly affected almost all yield parameters (cluster weight, berry weight, and number of berries per cluster), while in cultivar Vranac, defoliation did not modify the berry growth and berry weight. In both varieties, cluster thinning did not affect the berry weight. In the treatments where both defoliation and cluster thinning was applied, a reduction of the cluster weight, berry weight, and berry numbers per cluster was observed. Cabernet Sauvignon showed a greater reactivity to the applied techniques, while Vranac was less reactive. At harvest, no damaged bunches (caused by sunburn) were found in defoliated treatment. It can be concluded that for both varieties, early defoliation and cluster thinning lead to better soluble solids accumulation than in the control set. The treatments lead to raised concentration of anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins in both varieties. It is confirmed that the highest content of anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins was in the skin extracts of the grapes where both treatments were applied. This is followed by the treatment where only defoliation was applied. The enhanced contents of these compounds per berry in grape variety Vranac are the result of increased synthesis, while in Cabernet sauvignon variety, increased content was due to the less berry weight. The best wine characteristics (alcohol, color intensity, color hue, total anthocyanins, total polyphenols) were found in products, where defoliation was applied.

Mapping and monitoring cluster morphology provides insights for disease risk assessment, quality control in wine production, and understanding environmental influences on cluster shape. During the progression of grapevine morphology, cluster closure (CC) (also called bunch closure) is the stage when berries touch one another. This study used mobile phone images to develop a direct quantification method for tracking CC in three grapevine cultivars (Riesling, Pinot gris, and Cabernet Franc). A total of 809 cluster images from fruit set to veraison were analyzed using two image segmentation methods: (i) a Pyramid Scene Parsing Network (PSPNet) to extract cluster boundaries and (ii) Otsu’s image thresholding method to calculate % CC based on gaps between the berries. PSPNet produced high accuracy (mean accuracy = 0.98, mean intersection over union (mIoU) = 0.95) with mIoU > 0.90 for both cluster and noncluster classes. Otsu’s thresholding method resulted in <2% falsely classified gap and berry pixels affecting quantified % CC. The progression of CC was described using basic statistics (mean and standard deviation) and using a curve fit. The CC curve showed an asymptotic trend, with a higher rate of progression observed in the first three weeks, followed by a gradual approach towards an asymptote. We propose that the X value (in this example, number of weeks past berry set) at which the CC progression curve reaches the asymptote be considered as the official phenological stage of CC. The developed method provides a continuous scale of CC throughout the season, potentially serving as a valuable open-source research tool for studying grapevine cluster phenology and factors affecting CC.

Olive-mill and grape-mill residue impact the growth, physiology and nutrient status of grapevines young cuttings

Summary The Serbian fungus-tolerant grapevine cultivar ‘Morava’ has been recognized by both wine producers and consumers, resulting in increased areas devoted to the cultivar. ‘Morava’ (‘SK 77-7/4’ x ‘Bianca’, released in Sremski Karlovci) is a popular cultivar for white wines, particularly in the central part of Serbia, because of the interesting aroma profile of its wine. The objective of this research was to investigate the yield, grape quality and wine sensory characteristics of the ‘Morava’ grapevine cultivar grown under organic and conventional management. The experiment was conducted at an experimental field for viticulture in Sremski Karlovci (Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad) during the period 2015-2018. The grape yields produced under organic management were found lower than those under conventional management. The chemical composition of organic grapes was on par with that of conventional grapes, whereas the wine sensory characteristics of organic grapes were scored higher than those of conventional grapes.