GiESCO 2015 – EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON FRUIT PHENOTYPE AND WINE

This grant partially funded the travel of Victor Sadras to attend the GiESCO 2015 meeting, where he presented a key note paper featuring AGWA-funded research on warming effects and vineyard management. The main themes of the conference were (1) ecophysiology, water and irrigation, (2) climate and terroir, (3) training and cultivation techniques, (4) grape berry and microclimate, (5) new technologies, and (6) rootstock and soil. The professional session on the last day of the conference focused on both big picture issues and case studies with regional relevance under the title Sustainable viticulture. A production system is sustainable if it meets four conditions: it is profitable, accounts for the social and environmental expectations, and delivers safe produce. All these factors are related, and failure in one or more of them compromises the system. Sustainability and climate change were the topics of papers by Smart, Schultz, Sadras and Carbonneau. Sustainability however needs to be solved locally. Case studies dealt with specific regional aspects, such as irrigation and the role of organic systems in California, Champagne, Australia, and Switzerland. To communicate the conference to industry, an article summarising the meeting was submitted to the Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker magazine.