Viticulture
20 January 2025
Part 1: Is there a correlation between the diameter of the pruning wound and the length of the desiccation cone?
While pruning is an age-old and essential practice for managing yields and keeping vines in production for as long as possible, many questions remain unanswered about its role in vine physiology, particularly with regard to the formation of ...
20 January 2025
Part 2: How long to form the desiccation cones of the chicot and when should be removed the chicot?
Leaving a chicot when pruning is now a widespread practice in vineyards, but the question remains as to when this zone of dead wood can be “re-pruned”. Can it be removed the year after pruning? Should you wait for a full ...
8 January 2025
Wrapping permanent cordon arms tightly around the cordon wire negatively impacts vine performance
In certain winegrowing regions, it is a common practice to wrap canes very tightly around the cordon wire during the establishment of permanent cordon arms. This method of training may result in a constriction of the ...
20 December 2024
Exploring grapevine canopy management: effects of removing main leaves or lateral shoots before flowering
This study highlights the physiological effects of pre-flowering leaf removal from the fruiting zone of the Swiss white grape variety Petite Arvine, which is rich in varietal thiols. Pre-flowering removal of main leaves ...
19 December 2024
Role of the rootstock and its genetic background in plant mineral status assessed by petiole analysis and deficiency symptoms
Rootstocks are potentially important levers of adaptation in the context of climate change. In this study, we investigated the effect of the rootstock and its genetic background on plant mineral status. The scion, the ...
9 December 2024
Effect of biodynamic preparations 500 and 501 on vine and berry physiology, pedology and the soil microbiome
The increasing interest in organic and biodynamic wine production is driven by a desire for sustainability and reduced reliance on synthetic inputs. As of 2021, organic viticulture accounted for 6.4 % of the global vineyard ...
29 November 2024
Vineyard Canopy Management: Timing of the First Hedge-Trimming
Delaying the date of the first hedge-trimming (or ‘tip-pruning’) is of limited technical value in vineyard canopy management. The impact of the delay on lateral shoot growth and must composition remains marginal ...
22 November 2024
COPPEREPLACE. Copper applications in organic viticulture, are a real challenge today. Part 2. Technical and practical implementation
In grape and wine production, one of the main relevant and recurrent diseases is downy mildew, caused by the fungus Plamospara viticola. It is frequently present in wine production worldwide, with a significant high annual incidence ...
22 November 2024
Effectiveness of hedges and nets in reducing the risk of drift and exposure of local residents during vineyard spraying: initial results
IFV and INRAE have used the EoleDrift test rig to measure the drift reduction performance of two types of plot modification (shrub hedges and windbreak nets). Whatever the sprayer used and the type of drift measured ...
31 October 2024
Drought tolerance in grapevine involves multiple interacting physiological mechanisms
The past decade has produced some major advances in our understanding of how grapevines regulate their water use and tolerate drought. Numerous traits that are important for conferring drought tolerance have been identified ...
17 October 2024
Study of pesticide-use pathways during the agroecological transition of DEPHY-Vigne farms
Created in 2010, the DEPHY-Vigne network is formed of winegrowers who are committed to reducing the use of pesticides, and thus aims to demonstrate that such a change is possible using currently available techniques. The ...
8 October 2024
Gradient of grapevine varietal susceptibility to esca
To study varietal susceptibility to esca, we recently analyzed the annual incidence of leaf symptoms on an experimental plot (2017–2023) (Gastou et al., 2024) and from a trunk-disease monitoring network in ...
30 September 2024
COPPEREPLACE 1. Copper applications in organic viticulture are a real challenge today.
Part 1 - Scientific Activities
In grape and wine production, one of the main relevant and recurrent diseases is downy mildew, caused by the fungus Plamospara viticola. It is frequently present in wine production worldwide, with a significant high annual incidence ...
25 September 2024
Resumption of the planting of grapevine varieties in France, referred to as "disease-resistant"
This article investigates the beginning of the adoption of a new generation of “resistant” grapevine varieties (RVs) in France, in a European context in which varietal innovation has become more and more dynamic over the last thirty years.
13 September 2024
History of breeding programmes for fungus resistant grape varieties in Europe, France and the Occitanie region
Fungus tolerant grape varieties (RVs) are emerging as a promising solution in a viticultural context characterised by growing societal, environmental, and regulatory tensions. Since the 1930s, several countries have launched research ...
13 August 2024
Impact of foliar nitrogen supplementation on Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc wines
The effectiveness of an application of foliar nitrogen at veraison depends on the initial level of vine nitrogen deficiency, an Agroscope study has shown. The threshold levels of assimilable nitrogen deficiency in the ...
30 July 2024
How to better estimate bunch number at field level?
In viticulture, early-season estimation of average number of grape bunches per vine is crucial for vineyard planning, investments and marketing (Laurent et al., 2021). Although sampling is widely carried out to estimate grape bunches ...
12 July 2024
Technological innovations in vineyard spraying: assessment of PWM technology and future prospects
The Institut Français de la Vigne et du Vin and INRAE have worked with the companies OPTIMA Concept and Berthoud to develop a high-precision digitally controlled sprayer that automatically adjusts the volume of spray delivered by each nozzle ...
27 June 2024
La Tour Carnet 2050: insights on phenology and yield of a very large collection of varieties
The introduction of new grape varieties to Bordeaux is one of the available levers to build up resilience to climate change. An ideal candidate for varietal diversification must fulfill different ...
6 May 2024
Detailing ripening phenological stages: discrepancies, usefulness and proposal
It is crucial to optimise the choice of picking date to get the most out of a harvest. Close monitoring of grape ripening dynamics and comparison with previous years and other vineyards/regions are necessary. Due to the climate challenge, high ...
19 April 2024
Chitosans and grapevine trunk diseases: surprising results from laboratory and vineyard studies
The potential of chitosans to control grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) has been studied in a public-private partnership. In vitro tests, vineyard efficacy trials and laboratory analyses were carried out to understand their mode of ...
8 March 2024
Australia’s viticultural trends: Insights from a new database
This article summarizes and updates an article originally published as Anderson and Puga (2023a). The aim of this note is to summarise key insights from a recently compiled and updated annual database on Australia’s winegrape and wine ...
9 February 2024
Part 1. Evaluation of the overall performance of winegrowing systems in the Bordeaux region and of agroecological transition scenarios (Background and Methodology)
The agroecological transition is an essential issue for vineyards, given the high pressure surrounding the use of pesticides to protect the crop. Major changes are required in winegrowing systems in order to achieve sharp reductions in the use ...
9 February 2024
Part 2. Evaluation of the overall performance of winegrowing systems in the Bordeaux region and of agroecological transition scenarios (Results and Discussion)
The agroecological transition is an essential issue for vineyards, given the high pressure surrounding the use of pesticides to protect the crop. Major changes are required in winegrowing systems in order to achieve sharp reductions in the use ...
10 November 2023
Copper ecotoxicity in French vineyard soils
How toxic is copper contamination of vineyard soils to the ecosystem? That is the thorny question this paper seeks to answer. Based on studies describing Cu toxicity in plants, it points out that Cu contamination of vineyard soils is generally ...