On June 28, 2021, NGRA’s Board of Directors held its Mid-Year Meeting, virtually of course. Even with an abbreviated agenda for Zoom, we manage to cover a lot of ground at our Board meetings, and this one was no exceptions. Here are highlights from our June meeting, focusing on what’s new and what we’ve achieved so far in 2021.

The new delegate for long-time NGRA-member the Arkansas Wine Producers Council, Andrew Post (Post Winery), was unanimously elected to join our Board as Southwest Regional Representative. Andrew will serve to convey the research interests of Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Congrats, Andrew!

A membership structure was adopted for our new affiliate membership category for organizations that support the grape and wine industry with services, supplies and equipment. It sets a minimum annual contribution of $3,000 for affiliates and provides member-only opportunities to underwrite things like this newsletter and private NGRA Board functions, and to receive priority consideration for field trials, demo days and symposia. As Development Committee Co-Chair John Martini (Anthony Road Wine Company) said, “Affiliate members bring a unique and valuable perspective to the issues that affect our industry. Having them ‘in the room’ broadens our conversations about the research we need.” We look forward to onboarding our first affiliate members yet this year.

Benchmarking performance against the goals we set in January, Board Chair Russ Smithyman’s Chairman’s report captured the mid-year moment. He noted:

Strategic Planning: A planning committee led by Vicky Scharlau (Washington Winegrowers) this month started to lay the groundwork for an all-Board strategic planning meeting to be held in person, hopefully, in Spring 2022.

Russ concluded the meeting by acknowledging NGRA’s strengths. He called out our vibrant mission to facilitate research and newer efforts to expand outreach efforts through events and seminars. Our achievements, he said, all come down to member engagement and a strong ethos of volunteerism. Indeed, as President, I’m just here to make sure the plates keep spinning—our members keep our research mission alive and thriving.

Thank you to our Board of Directors for their robust participation, not only in Board meetings, but in all we do—even in virtual formats.

President

In June 2020, Annie Klodd, Extension Educator for Fruit Production at University of Minnesota, started getting calls and text messages about deformed and discolored leaves. As she wrote in her weekly blog, this photo is an example of dicamba drift. See related story from Texas below.

The American Vineyard Foundation (AVF) invites grape and wine representatives to rank the industry’s top research priorities to help guide AVF’s research review committees in recommending which projects to fund. Please participate! The online survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Viticulture and enology issues are grouped together into subcategories; you may complete each section independently or do both, as you see fit. Responses are due by August 20, 2021.

Fifty-seven vineyards and processors in the High Plains AVA in Texas are suing Bayer-Monsanto and BASF over damage caused by a defective GMO seed system that uses the highly volatile, drift-prone dicamba herbicide. Roxanne Myers, President of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, said the lawsuit underscores ongoing concerns about the continuing use of dicamba-based products by Texas row crop farmers on the production and quality of Texas wine. Dicamba, which easily turns into a gas and can move miles away from where it is applied, can be lethal to grapevines. 

The Washington Wine Commission, an NGRA member-organization, will launch a new website on August 2, to coincide with the kickoff to Washington Wine Month. Get a sneak peek! Among the enhancements, the website now features a terrific new Research Library, which houses research reports, articles, WAVE (Washington Advancements in Viticulture and Enology) presentations, webinar recordings and more. It’s searchable by topic and allows for downloads of full articles and reports.

In addition to the new website, the Commission has renewed its research priorities. Generated from industry input via annual Research Survey and approved by the Commission’s Wine Research Advisory Committee last month, the 2021-22 list is dominated by sustainability issues. Research priorities drive the research program and ensure that research projects are relevant to industry needs.

Following a long and distinguished career in agricultural and biomedical research administration, Dr. Sally Rockey, executive director of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), announced her plan to retire at the end of 2021. Dr. Rockey joined FFAR in 2015, as the organization’s inaugural Executive Director and led FFAR through its startup phase, ultimately overseeing awards of more than 200 grants totaling more than $650 million to advance food and agriculture research. The FFAR Board of Directors is beginning the search process and hopes to identify a new executive director by the end of the year.

Following the retirement of Dr. Dan Lineberger earlier this year, Dr. Amit Dhingra will become the new Horticulture Department head at Texas A&M University, effective September 1, 2021. Previously, he was interim chair and professor of Genomics and Biotechnology in the Department of Horticulture at Washington State University. Professor and plant scientist Doreen Main resumed her role leading WSU’s Department of Horticulture on an interim basis this month, following Dr. Dhingra’s departure.

After three years of limited hiring due to budget constraints, a “transformational” budget increase will help rebuild UC Cooperative Extension, said Glenda Humiston, UC Vice President for UC ANR. Twenty UC Cooperative Extension positions are designated as critically urgent to fill, but to avoid overwhelming UC ANR’s Human Resources staff, they're being announced in two groups. The first 10 openings include these grape-related jobs:

The other 10 positions of the 20 will be released in late September. Search UC ANR jobs.

Raise a glass to California's 2021 Green Medal Awards, recognizing the state's growers and vintners for leadership in sustainability. This year's honorees are:

Considering the volume of competition, the awards are significant: More than 80% of California wine is made in a Certified California Sustainable Winery. More than half of the state’s winegrape acreage is certified as Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, Fish Friendly Farming, LODI RULES, Napa Green or SIP Certified.

Nominations are being accepted now through October 4, 2021, for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences, which recognizes research by a mid-career scientist at a U.S. institution who has made an extraordinary contribution to agriculture or to the understanding of the biology of a species fundamentally important to agriculture or food production. Annually, the prize is awarded to one recipient, who receives a medal and a $100,000 cash award. The recipient will be announced in January 2022.

The FRAME (Fungicide Resistance Assessment, Mitigation and Extension) Networks project has launched a grape powdery mildew fungicide resistance dashboard. Browse resistance by state, grape category, region or all.

A team of UC Davis researchers led by Beth Forrestel, assistant professor in the Department of Viticulture and Enology, is working to modernize the Winkler Index, which classifies the climate of wine growing regions and helps growers determine which grape varieties are best suited for a given area. The seminal original work by UC Davis professors A.J. Winkler and Maynard Amerine was instrumental in providing a guide to help wine growers revive California’s wine industry in the 1940s following the repeal of Prohibition. It eventually became the standard climate tool used for winegrape growing worldwide.

Using thousands of index cards to record their field data, Drs. Winkler and Amerine calculated average daily temperatures throughout the growing season to identify five climate regions, from coolest (Region I) to warmest (Region V). Climate change, and the rising temperatures and erratic weather that come with it, has already limited the accuracy of these regional classifications. Napa Valley, for example, was considered Region II when the Winkler Index was developed. Now, most parts are a Region III or IV. UC Davis students are digitizing the cards and using them to create a visual tool to show the movement of California’s viticultural regions through the classifications over time.

“There is a renewed interest by industry and stakeholders to understand how to best mitigate climate change effects on existing vineyards and choose appropriate cultivars for the future,” Beth said. “The new methods and data sources we’re bringing to this project will help us do just that.”

“Because we are in a period of climate change, we need more refined and comprehensive ways of measuring the effect of heat on plant physiology and grape maturity,” said Napa Valley winemaker Warren Winiarski, founder of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars who is helping to fund the research. “The development of new methods of measurement would be extraordinarily helpful. With better knowledge of changes in the compositional elements in the grapes in the vineyard, we’ll have better guidance on how to respond in the winery and create the wines we want to make.”

Sophisticated monitoring technology and remote sensing data will help move beyond average climate conditions to paint a fuller picture of the environmental factors that most significantly affect plant growth, berry chemistry and, ultimately, wine quality.

Even though smoke, wildfires and pandemic-induced restrictions presented formidable obstacles to field research in 2020, the initial year of the study, Beth reports the project is gaining momentum. Data this season will be collected from Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon vineyards to document conditions in its many microclimates. Information will be gathered on a wide range of factors, such as light intensity within the grapevine canopy, soil characteristics, field-specific irrigation practices, estimated water use, berry chemistry, temperature and physiology—all things that ultimately have a bearing on wine quality. Heat stress is a particular concern.

While the initial focus is on cabernet sauvignon, the most widely grown and economically important wine grape variety in the world, the project is expanding to other cultivars as well. A study analyzing the comparative biochemistry of wine grape berries in 24 commonly planted varieties is underway, as well.

Additionally, two study blocks of 60 wine grape cultivars were planted this spring at UC Davis and at the university’s Oakville field station. These and some commercial vineyards—a number of Napa growers and winemakers have raised their hands to serve as collaborators, providing data from their own weather stations—will be used to compare wine grape performance and to update models of plant development and biochemical responses to heat accumulation. This study, which was modeled on the VitAdapt long-term cultivar trial in Bordeaux, France, is planned to be replicated with the same rootstock and common cultivars Adelaide, Australia, and Lodi, CA, as part of an international climate adaptation initiative.

Beth says the project will give growers the knowledge they need to take appropriate management actions like modifying irrigation practices right now. But she’s working with an eye toward a hotter future. “The establishment of a new index and the development of new models of grapevine and berry development will provide guidance for the viticulture and wine industry to cope with current and future climate, manage existing vineyards, and make decisions on future plantings and winemaking choices,” she said.

The Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference (AWITC), taking place in Adelaide, June 26-29, 2022, seeks expressions of interest from speakers to convene workshops there. Approximately 30 workshops will be staged, covering a range of themes, on Sunday, June 26, 2022. Each workshop will run for a maximum of 2.5 hours. Convenors will receive one complimentary registration to the conference. Expressions of interest are due by August 13, 2021. Start your application!

In addition to the regular Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program funding authorized by the Farm Bill, Congress has awarded additional one-time funding to State Departments of Agriculture due to the COVID-19 impacts on the food system under House Resolution 133. Starting in August 2021, applications are coming due for this H.R. 133 Stimulus Funding by state. Click to our listing of SCBG deadlines to see when to apply in your state and get specifics on allowable projects.

The Organic Farming Research Foundation (ORFR) is now accepting letters of intent for its research grant program. This grant cycle, OFRF is prioritizing applications from early career researchers and those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; farmers and ranchers may apply. OFRF will fund up to $20,000 for one year of research for projects that fall under at least one of its six research priority areas: soil health; weed, pest and disease management; resilient cultivars; livestock and poultry; social science; and/or resilience. Project submissions may be research-based or integrated (research, education and/or extension). Applications are due on August 20, 2021. Learn more.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) invites applications for fiscal year 2022 Plant Protection Act Section 7721 funding, including proposals for the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN). The network of clean plant centers provides diagnostic and pathogen elimination services to produce clean propagative plant material and maintain blocks of pathogen-tested plant material in sites throughout the U.S. The deadline to apply for NCPN funding is August 27, 2021. Learn more.

Double Cropping in Vitis vinifera L. cv. Pinot Noir: Agronomical and Physiological Validation

The four newly developed French varieties resistant to fungal diseases have been officially affiliated with Vitis vinifera L. by the country's Community Plant Variety Office. The new categorization paves the way for planting in appellation vineyards--a move that was previously unthinkable. "Acceptance by the CPVO is a gateway to a new perspective,” said one French official.

Find these stories and more, published daily, on NGRA's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

August 5, 2021

Charles Edwards, Washington State University

August 5-9, 2021

Denver, CO

August 10, 2021

Virtual event

August 11-12, 2021

Virtual event

September 7, 2021

Virtual event

September 7, 2021

Lodi, CA

October 31-November 5, 2021

Virtual event

November 18, 2021

Via Zoom

November 30-December 2, 2021

Montpellier, France

Find all upcoming events on the NGRA website.