French vine die-back research gets a new boost

embers of France’s national vine die-back programme (PNDV) have just selected four research projects put forward by the French Vine & Wine Institute (IFV) over a period of 42 months. The ‘Vitimining’ project partners received funding to explore global public datasets for high-throughput sequencing starting January 2024 in order to identify the sequences matching known and/or unknown, emerging or re-emerging vine viruses.

The ‘Vygie’ programme will launch a month later in order to understand the link between the Grapevine Pinot gris Virus (GPGV) and associated symptoms known as Pinot gris disease (PGD). “Initial studies show that no French region is free from GPGV, even though two regions seem less affected for the moment – Charentes and the Loire Valley. Regarding PGD, very few symptoms have been identified in France, with the notable exception of Champagne”.

The PNDV also selected the ‘Pern’ programme aimed at developing a tool for managing nitrogen fertilisation for vines sustainably. Its objective is to ensure both economically sustainable productivity and the sustainability of the vines by utilising an existing computer prototype (N-Pérennes) which recommends daily mineral nitrogen quantities at the start of the season based on soil and climate conditions, vineyard management techniques and the desired yield for the block.

Lastly, in October 2024, the ‘Qualigreffes’ programme will launch to identify new indicators correlated to the “agronomic and physiological quality of the plants” on omega-type grafted vines.