Viticulture
29 November 2024
Vineyard Leaf 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
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
24 October 2023
Mechanisation of pre-flowering leaf removal under temperate climate conditions
Grapevine leaf removal (LR) in the cluster area is a common practice in temperate and cool climates, usually done between berry-set and cluster closure to create a less favourable microclimate for fungal diseases and to improve grape ripening. ...
5 October 2023
High eugenol content of Armagnac hybrid variety Baco Blanc, an asset in combating Botrytis cinerea
Baco Blanc is the grape variety specific to the wine spirit Armagnac. A hybrid vine with good tolerance, particularly to Botrytis cinerea, its berries have an atypical chemical composition. Specifically, they have a high concentration ...
25 September 2023
Mortality and vigour based indicators for an early diagnosis of vineyard decline
Similar to the forestry industry, the winegrowing sector has experienced a grapevine decline phenomenon over the last twenty years, so that decline is now considered an increasingly widespread problem in many vineyards across the world (De la ...
8 September 2023
Carbon isotope discrimination (so-called δ13C) measured on grape juice is an accessible tool to monitor vine water status in production conditions
Assessment of vine water status is needed to understand the effect of environmental factors and management practices on dry-farmed and irrigated vineyards. Among plant-based indicators, carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C) is easily ...
25 August 2023
Temperature variation linked to trellis height: an opportunity for adaptation to climate change?
Temperature is a key factor in vine growth and grape composition (Jones, 2006). Climate change is already having an impact on these parameters in many wine regions, and it is becoming necessary to adapt in order to continue producing quality ...
20 June 2023
Nitrogen nutrition status of the vine: correlation between N-tester and SPAD chlorophyll indices
Knowledge of the nitrogen nutrition status of the vine is essential for long-term management of its nutrition with the aim of producing high-quality grapes. Measurement of the chlorophyll index is a fast, non-destructive and relatively ...