4. The Vine Flashcards
Name the main Eurasian species of vine.
Vitis vinifera
What is the main vine species used in winemaking?
Vitis vinifera
How long has Vitis vinifera been used to make wine?
Several thousand years
Why are the 3 species of vines native to North America rarely used to produce grapes for winemaking? Why are they beneficial?
-Unattractive flavors
Why are the native North American vines beneficial? What are they used for?
- Resistant to Phylloxera (vine pest that attacks roots)
- Used to produce rootstocks onto which V. vinifera vines are grafted
Why are the main differences between grape varieties to consumers and to growers?
Consumers: color and flavor
Growers: budding/ripening times, resistance to diseases
What are the two techniques used to preserved the unique qualities of a variety?
Cutting and Layering
What is a cutting? Where is this method most widely used?
A cutting is a section of a vine shoot that is planted and then grows as a new plant. Most widely used at commercial nurseries that sell vines to growers.
What is layering?
- Takes place in the vineyard
- A cane is bent down and a section of it is buried. The cane tip points upwards out of the ground. The buried section takes root. The cane linking the new growth to the original plant is cut.
Due to phylloxera risk, which method of preserving grape varieties is better?
Cuttings
What word is sometimes used synonymously with ‘variety’?
Cultivar
What is clonal selection?
When vines with positive utatopms are se;ected for further propagation by cutting or layering, so that the positive characteristics of these vines can be carried forward in new plantings.
Examples: better fruit quality, better resistance to disease
What is a clone?
- Each individual vine or group of vines that shows a particular set of unique characteristics
- Typically so similar that they’re still the same grape variety however some mutations have such a significant effect that they resulting plants are treated as new varieties.
Name two examples of clones that mutated into their own variety.
Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc (from Pinot Noir)
What is cross-fertilization? What is the result?
In order to find new, better grape varieties, researchers take the pollen from the male part of a flower of one vine and transfer it to the female part of the flower of another vine for fertilization. The pollinated flower develops into a grape with seeds that can be planted and grown into a new variety.
- The result is a new grape variety (even if the parents are the same).
- Process is difficult and time-consuming.