Articles
New perspectives for some local grapevines of the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy): from the genetic characterization to the wine production in the current scenario of global warming
Article number
1387_15
Pages
113 – 120
Language
English
Abstract
The Emilia-Romagna region is one of the top wine producers in Italy and more than one hundred cultivars are cultivated on about 53,000 ha.
Thanks to its geographic position (this region links the Po Valley with central Italy) Emilia-Romagna has always been a melting pot of people and cultures and probably that favoured the high genetic diversity of the Vitis vinifera L. species.
Unfortunately, many cultivars are residues of the long winemaking tradition and now are threatened with extinction.
For this reason, in the last 20 years, many regional projects were aimed to identify and collect ex situ the unique local cultivars to preserve them from extinction.
The neglected cultivars, mostly found in family farms, were analysed at 10 nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and the molecular profile obtained was compared with internal and public SSR databases for varietal identification.
The genetic analysis performed on 180 grapevine accessions disclosed 124 unique genotypes (equal to 30% of synonyms) and between them, 60 corresponded to cultivars inserted in the Italian Catalogue of Grape Varieties or to foreign cultivars.
The remaining 64 accessions were original cultivars.
The most promising cultivars (i.e., Biondello, Famoso, Lambrusco Benetti, Trebbianina and Uva del Fantini) underwent an accurate ampelographic description and agronomical evaluation and then a small lot of grapes were vinified in an experimental winery for the chemical and sensory analysis of the wines.
Thanks to their interesting agronomical and enological attitudes, in the last years they were registered in the Italian Catalogue of Grape Varieties and their cultivation was allowed in Emilia-Romagna.
This long-lasting study evaluated accurately the local genetic resources of Vitis vinifera L. and allowed us to identify and preserve unique accessions that in the current scenario of climate change might be cultivated for commercial exploitation or might be considered for breeding programs.
Thanks to its geographic position (this region links the Po Valley with central Italy) Emilia-Romagna has always been a melting pot of people and cultures and probably that favoured the high genetic diversity of the Vitis vinifera L. species.
Unfortunately, many cultivars are residues of the long winemaking tradition and now are threatened with extinction.
For this reason, in the last 20 years, many regional projects were aimed to identify and collect ex situ the unique local cultivars to preserve them from extinction.
The neglected cultivars, mostly found in family farms, were analysed at 10 nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and the molecular profile obtained was compared with internal and public SSR databases for varietal identification.
The genetic analysis performed on 180 grapevine accessions disclosed 124 unique genotypes (equal to 30% of synonyms) and between them, 60 corresponded to cultivars inserted in the Italian Catalogue of Grape Varieties or to foreign cultivars.
The remaining 64 accessions were original cultivars.
The most promising cultivars (i.e., Biondello, Famoso, Lambrusco Benetti, Trebbianina and Uva del Fantini) underwent an accurate ampelographic description and agronomical evaluation and then a small lot of grapes were vinified in an experimental winery for the chemical and sensory analysis of the wines.
Thanks to their interesting agronomical and enological attitudes, in the last years they were registered in the Italian Catalogue of Grape Varieties and their cultivation was allowed in Emilia-Romagna.
This long-lasting study evaluated accurately the local genetic resources of Vitis vinifera L. and allowed us to identify and preserve unique accessions that in the current scenario of climate change might be cultivated for commercial exploitation or might be considered for breeding programs.
Publication
Authors
G. Allegro, C. Pastore, M. Fontana, R. Mazzoleni, G. Valentini, I. Filippetti
Keywords
climate change, genetic resources, germplasm recovery, varietal identification, Vitis vinifera L
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