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Helen Fisher, Ph.D. Research Scientist, Viticulture
University of Guelph - Dept. of Plant Agriculture
E-mail:
hfisher@uoguelph.ca
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Viticulture, both breeding and production research, has been part of the fruit research programme since the origin of the station in 1905. Emphasis has changed over the years depending on the needs of the industry but the program presently addresses wine, juice and table grape concerns. The breeding program has introduced seven varieties and the production research has addressed fertility issues, training and trellising requirements, vine spacing, crop management, rootstocks and many other vineyard management problems. The breeding program and the production research program utilize labrusca, hybrid and vinifera plant material.
The breeding program at Vineland began in 1913 with the task of developing sturdy labrusca based varieties for the fresh fruit trade that would withstand shipping to the Canadian Prairies. Vinifera greenhouse varieties were used for berry quality and crisp flesh characteristics, but these early labrusca-vinifera crosses were not very successful. As the wine industry became more important in the 1920's and 1930's, crosses were designed to improve the colour of the red labrusca varieties for fortified dessert wine production. In the 1940's, as table wines, rather than dessert wines, became the main focus of the wine industry, a large collection of direct producer interspecific hybrids was imported from the original Seibel nursery in France for variety testing as well as a source of non-labrusca germplasm
The wine grape breeding program depended heavily on these complex, interspecific hybrids in the 1950's and 1960's and produced many winter hardy but mildly flavoured selections that interested and were utilized by the wine producers. However, by the 1970's and 1980's, the public became adamant in their demand for non-labrusca based wines and all seedlings from the wine breeding program were screened for these negative flavour characteristics using the Vineland Grape Flavour index. As a result, the selections in the 1980's and 1990's had very clean, vinous or muscat flavour profiles. These are now being backcrossed with vinifera lines to improve the flavours further and yet retain the winter hardiness gained with the interspecific crosses made earlier. Four varieties have been named to date.
Throughout the changes in direction of the breeding program brought about by the evolution of the wine industry, a small number of crosses were made during each breeding season for table grape purposes. Any other selections that suited this purpose were also retained. Labrusca-vinifera hybrids from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, New York formed the basis for many these crosses and are still used today for their fine flavour characteristics. Crisp fleshed, seedless fruit on a winter hardy vine still the elusive goal of the table grape breeding programme. Three varieties have been named to date.
The early production work at Vineland focussed on general management techniques for improving productivity and efficiency in the vineyard. This involved cover crops, manuring and mulching, fertilizer usage, trellising and training techniques, timing and degree of pruning, herbicide trials, cropping levels, propagation and grafting techniques and many other vineyard management problems.
This spectrum of work has not changed a great deal today, but the research projects are more variety focussed. The pruning and thinning mechanization studies are concentrating on lower value wine grapes and juice (labrusca) grapes. The spacing, trellising and cropping level studies are concentrating on vinifera wine grapes. The scion/ rootstock interaction studies are based on vinifera wine varieties and clones. Land rehabilitation and soil amendment work is based on labrusca and hybrid varieties.
The 1997 processing grape crop was 48,047 tonnes, including 5,869 tonnes sold as fresh fruit. The total value of the crop was $35,000,000 with a mean value per tonne of $830.00. Actual processing prices varied from a high of $1,700/tonne for Merlot to a low of $415/tonne for Concord and Niagara. The wine industry is quite buoyant with good pricing, good wine sales and good tourist spin-off with associated restaurants and tours. The juice industry is struggling to survive and processed the lowest tonnage (9,236 tonnes) in many years. The table grape industry is set to expand with the labrusca seedless variety Sovereign Coronation, which is receiving good market response. There is active planting for the wine industry, but the price of good land is being driven up to highly inflated values in the best locations.
Research Information:
OMAFRA Factsheets and Information:
Fisher, K.H. 1997. Drainage for optimum vineyard root growth. Wines East. Mar/Apr.: 10-20, 41
Fisher, K.H. 1995. Viticulture. Univ. Guelph, Independent Study, OAC Access, Course #606. pp150
Fisher, K.H. 1995. Refining icewine harvesting techniques to maximize fruit recovery. Abst. in: 46th Ann. Mtg. Amer. Soc. Enol. and Vitic.; Portland, OR. Technical Abstracts 1995: p51
Fuleki T. and K.H. Fisher. 1995. Putting science into the art of icewine making. Highlights of Agri-Food Research in Ontario. March 20-24, 1995.
Staff, S.A., D.C. Percival, J.A. Sullivan and K.H. Fisher. 1997. Fruit zone leaf removal influences vegetative, yield, disease, fruit composition and wine sensory attributes of Optima and Cabernet franc. Can. J. Plant Sci.77:149-153.
Fisher, K.H., B. Piott and J. Barkovic. 1996. Adaptability of labrusca and French hybrid grape varieties to mechanical pruning and mechanical thinning. Proc. 4th Int. Cool Climate Enology and Viticulture Conference (Ed: T. Henik-Kling, T.E. Wolf and E.M. Harkness), Rocherster, NY. IV:33-39.
Fisher, K.H., B. Piott and T. Tancock. 1996. Estimating concord crops for machine thinning accuracy. Proc. 4th Int. Cool Climate Enology and Viticulture Conference (Ed: T. Henik-Kling, T.E. Wolf and E.M. Harkness), Rochester, NY. IV:28-32.
Percival, D.C., K.H. Fisher and J.A. Sullivan. 1994. Use of fruit zone leaf removal with Vitis vinifera L. cv. Riesling grapevines. Part I: Effect on canopy structure, microclimate, but survival, shoot density and vine vigour. Am. J. Enol, & Vitic. 45:2:155-161.
Percival, D.C., K.H. Fisher and J.A. Sullivan. 1994. Use of fruit zone leaf removal with Vitis vinifera L. cv. Riesling grapevines. Part II: Effect on fruit composition, yield and occurrence of bunch rot (Botrytis cinerea pers.:Fr.) canopy structure, microclimate, but survival, shoot density and vine vigour. Am. J. Enol, & Vitic. 45:2:155-161.
Percival, D.C., J.A. Sullivan and K.H. Fisher. 1993. Effect of cluster exposure, berry contact and cultivar on cuticular membrane formation and occurrence of bunch rot (Botrytis cinerea Pers.:Dr.) with 3 Vitis vinifera L. cultivars. Vitis: 32:87-97.
Horticultural Crop Statistics - Grapes
The Tender Fruit Grape Vine Newsletter
The Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI)
Pests of Grape: University of California Pest Management Guidelines
Grape, Food Resource, Oregon State University
Oenology and Viticulture Newsletters, Magazines and Reports: James A. Gibson Library, Brock University
Selected Journals for Oenology and Viticulture: James A. Gibson Library, Brock University