CHANCELLERY COMMANDER CHIK BRENNEMAN ANSWERS THE QUESTION:
WHAT’S IN A GRAPE? As a winemaker, I have always held the belief that great wines are made in the vineyard. Therefore, I make a point to listen to the viticulturists whose expertise is in matching the right grape variety to the appropriate rootstock. Their understanding of the soil type, the local microclimates, and topography is a complex process, and in many areas of the world, has taken centuries to master. The challenges of grape variety selection are also compounded by local pressures such as diseases, pests, and weather that challenge the grower during the growing season. Powdery and Downey mildew, Pierce’s Disease, and bird and insect pressure are just some of the challenges. But just as in the medical field, researchers strive to find cures or come up with preventative measures for common and rare maladies. In the vineyard, intervention with fungicide sprays can tackle a host of problems, but there is a movement towards decreasing the use of chemicals and development of some sort of resistance mechanism. As more and more regions outside of the traditional temperate winemaking zones open up to grape growing and wineries, extreme temperatures become problematic. The unsung heroes now are the botanists and geneticists who specialize in breeding better grape varieties, not just for disease resistance or finding a better variety for a particular site, but also to perhaps find a better tasting grape. Breeding plant varieties is nothing new. Botanists have been doing this since what seems like the beginning of time. With more knowledge about genetics, science in some plant fields has resorted to genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, to accomplish the task. GMOs are now looked at negatively even though they have been around for some time. The grape breeding industry is sensitive to this stigma and, while the technology is there to insert specific genes into the grape genome for a desired outcome, grape breeders have chosen a classical breeding approach. Classical breeding is essentially cross-pollinating vines that you find have desired characteristics, like disease resistance, into other vines that have other characteristics that would be enhanced by the cross.
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The Arbor
