GWRDC Overseas travel report: 29/08/2011-06/09/2011 17th GiESCO Symposium, Asti-Alba, Italy P.R. Clingeleffer, CSIRO Plant Industry, Waite Campus, Urrbrae INDEX Objectives 2 Planned Outputs 2-3 Overview 3 Giesco Symposium 4-18 Session I. Opening lectures 4-5 Session 2. Viticulture of Mediterranean and hot climates 5-6 Session 3. Sustainable viticulture and terroir 6-8 Session 4. Advanced technological viticulture 8-10 Session 5. Ecophysiology and Climatology 10-13 Session 6. Viticulture R&D within rapidly changing innovation and funding systems 13-14 Session 7. Vineyard management 14-18 Academy of wine presentations 18 GiESCO Scientific Committee meeting (02/09/2011) 19 Field trip to North Peidmont 20-24 Visit to grapevine collection with Anna Schneider in the La Morra region 24-26 Regional visit to La Morra region (with Anna Schneider) 27-28 Discussions with Anna Schneider, Ampelographer, University of Turin 29 Discussion with Jesus Yuste from Spain re vine improvement 30 1 OBJECTIVES The travel had three main objectives: 1. to attend the 17th GiESCO meeting in Asti, Italy and gain insight into recent developments in vine physiology, training and management 2. present an oral presentation on 'Rootstocks, a tool to manipulate vine growth characteristics, fruit composition and wine quality attributes, water use efficiency and drought tolerance' and a poster on ‘Recovery of Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines from long term water deficits’. 3. meet with key researchers involved in the new European rootstock physiology project, ‘Root tolerance and acclimation to abiotic stresses: knowledge and tools for improving temperate tree species breeding and cultivation’ PLANNED PROJECT OUTPUTS: Output Performance Targets Date 1. Attend 17th International Attend the 17th GiESCO symposium in 29/08/2011 GiESCO Symposium, Asti, Italy, 29th Aug-2 Sept. Participate in GiESCO Scientific Committee meeting as an Australian delegate. 2. Deliver oral presentation to Oral presentation titled 'Rootstocks, a tool 02/08/2011 GiESCO to manipulate vine growth characteristics, fruit composition and wine quality attributes, water use efficiency and drought tolerance' delivered to GiESCO. Paper published in proceedings. 3. Deliver poster presentation to Poster on ‘Recovery of Cabernet 02/08/2011 GiESCO Sauvignon grapevines from long term water deficits’ , authors Everard Edwards and Peter Clingeleffer, presented at GiESCO. Paper published in proceedings. 4. Discuss European rootstock Meet with key personnel involved in the 04/08/2011 physiology project with key development of the European rootstock personnel physiology project attending the GiESCO Symposium and with the coordinator, Davide Neri, University Politecnica Delle Marche, Ancona. The project ‘Root tolerance and acclimation to abiotic stresses: knowledge and tools for improving temperate tree species breeding and cultivation’ involves research agencies in France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, and Italy. Potential collaborations will be explored. 2 5. Deliver travel report to GWRDC Report on key international issues in 31/10/2011 regard to vine management, training and physiology addressed at the 17th GiESCO Symposium. Report on progress with the development and potential collaboration with the new European rootstock physiology project. REPORT Overview The main purpose of the travel was for Peter Clingeleffer to attend the 17th GiESCO symposium in Asti, Italy, 29th August – 2 September 2011, the international group of viticultural researchers involved in vine training and management. An oral paper on 'Rootstocks, a tool to manipulate vine growth characteristics, fruit composition and wine quality attributes, water use efficiency and drought tolerance' (Clingeleffer et. al. 2011) and a poster on ‘Recovery of Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines from long term water deficits’ (Edwards and Clingeleffer 2011) were presented and published in the refereed proceedings of the symposium . Peter Clingeleffer also participated in the GiESCO Scientific Committee meeting as an Australian delegate. It was also planned to meet with key researchers from France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, and Italy who have been involved in the development of a new rootstock physiology project in Europe at the GiESCO symposium. Discussions were had with Oriana Silvestroni (Ancona, Italy), Jesus Yuste (Spain) and Hans Schultz and Manfred Stoll (Geisenheim, Germany). Unfortunately, the project ‘Root tolerance and acclimation to abiotic stresses: knowledge and tools for improving temperate tree species breeding and cultivation’, coordinated by Davide Neri, from the Universita Politecnia dele Marche in Ancona was not funded as part of the EU research program. Hence travel to meet with Davide Neri was not undertaken. Instead, a day was spent with Anna Schneider who is involved in vine improvement and ampelographic studies at the University of Turin and a visit made to one of the key germplasm collections in Italy. Note: In discussion, Hans Schultz indicated that the FACE system to be used for elevated CO2 climate change studies was not functional, largely due to budget restraints. References for presentations: Clingeleffer, P.R., Smith, B.P., Edwards, E.J., Collins, M.J., Morales, N.B. and Walker, R.R. (2011) Rootstocks a tool to manipulate vine growth characteristics, fruit composition, and wine quality attributes, water use efficiency and drought tolerance. In: Proceedings 17th International GiESCO, Asti-Alba (CN), Italy, 29th August-2nd September 2011, 451-454. Edwards, E.J. and Clingeleffer, P.R. (2011) Recovery of Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines from long term water deficits.. In: Proceedings 17th International GiESCO, Asti-Alba (CN), Italy, 29th August-2nd September 2011, 371- 373. 3 17th GiESCO Symposium The 17th GiESCO Symposium was attended by about 200 delegates from 17 countries. In total there were 150 presentations (60 oral and 90 posters) in seven main sessions. Almost all presentations were included as part of the refereed proceedings available to delegates. Session I. Opening lectures This featured an address from the Director General of the OIV who presented an update of world viticulture statistics. Notable information included an overall drop in world grapevine plantings from 7.8 to 7.6 million hectares, with European vineyards accounting for 57% of the surface area. He noted the considerable increase in grapevine plantings in China, particularly of table grapes. Overall, there has been a slight increase in wine consumption worldwide from 227 to 238 million hectolitres, with a doubling of consumption in China. A new publication, Illustrated Historical Universal Ampelography book was also launched. This three volume publication, in English and Italian edited by Anna Schneider, Giusi Mainardi and Stefano Raimondi, contains colour pales of 551 varieties with text for each describing the morphological and agricultural characteristics of each variety, as well as their synonyms and historical curiosities. It incorporates the works of the French ampelographer’s, Viala and Vermorel and the Italian ampelographers, Count Gallesio and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, undertaken in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. A new Academy of Wine and Vine, linked to the GiESCO movement was also launched at the Symposium (see later discussion of presentations) 4 A key note address by Laurent Torregrosa reviewed the possible impact of climate change on grapevine development and the research strategies required to create genotypes for the future. The review included strategies to minimise the impacts of climate change, i.e. modification of cultivation practices, adaption of wine processing, selection of new cultivars and rootstocks, selection of new winegrowing regions and an overview of current research programs addressing these issues, largely in Europe. Research programs included: • CLIMATOR (France) which supports research activities to evaluate the effect of climate change on crops • VITSEC (France) which uses high throughput phenotyping facilities and techniques with the aim to determine the molecular and genetic base of grapevine responses to water supply • DURAVITIS (France) which aims to re-evaluate the impact of temperature on grapevine development • CENIT-DEMETER (Spain) which aims to assess the response of Spanish varieties to temperature and drought and involves 31 research groups and 26 companies • The FACE program (Germany) which aims to address vine response to elevated CO2 and water supply • ACCF metaprogram (France), a new initiative which aims to coordinate climate change work • LACCAVE (France) which aims to assess the long term impacts and adaptations to climate change in viticulture and oenology. It commenced in 2011. He concludes that modelling, including genetic parameters appears to be the best way to integrate current understanding to breed new varieties and rootstocks suitable for new environments. The review is an excellent paper and includes references and linkages to the programs above and has particular relevance to Australian researchers involved in climate change and grape physiology research. Session 2. Viticulture of Mediterranean and hot climates. This session included oral presentations on wine production and analyses in tropical regions, effect of water availability on root growth dynamics of three rootstocks grafted with Grenache in Spain, water and nitrogen effects on carbon isotope discrimination in Greece and the reproductive performance of grapes grown in hotter climates in Australia. The analytical studies described