Creating the Wines Of Tomorrow

(Wine-Searcher) - In a hotbed of innovation, scientists in southern France are inventing the wines of the future, creating resistant grape varieties and developing new technologies in the winery.

The 173-hectare Pech Rouge estate owned by the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) in the appellation of Corbières, is laden with 30 varieties of grapes ready to be picked across its 40 hectares of vineyards.

Divided into parcels, labeled and numbered, these vines produce wines from hybrids that have been created to cope with global warming – a phenomenon that has already seen alcohol levels rise considerably in the past 30 years – as well as withstand disease.

“Selecting varieties more resistant to disease seems to us the only solution for reducing pesticide use,” says Hernán Ojeda, an Argentinian engineer who is manager of the Pech Rouge experimental unit.

Vines are the second-most heavily sprayed plants in France, after apples, with spraying occurring between 6 and 20 times a season, depending on the region and the weather. Little trace of spraying remains in the wines, but the same cannot be said for the soils and run-off water.

Walking through the Pech Rouge vineyards, Ojeda points to a new variety, which doesn’t yet have a name, just a number. A cross of grenache, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, it has been crossed again with an American grape vine that has natural resistance to disease. This year, INRA harvested its sixth vintage of the unnamed variety, grown free from any chemical treatments.