(Wines&Vines) - David Block, chairman of the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California, Davis, recently shared several advances results in research as well as new opportunities for partnerships with the wine industry.

Speaking to an audience of members of the Allied Grape Growers during its annual meeting in Santa Rosa, Block said “Research is best thought of as an investment. Like financial investments, a diversified portfolio of research investments will be most effective over time.”

He briefly presented five case studies:

• Chardonnay clones 4 and 5

• Elimination of cork taint

• Adams-Harbertson tannin assay

• Low water?use rootstocks

• Impact of V&E teaching program on the California, U.S. and world wine industry

Chardonnay Clones

The available Chardonnay clones in the 1950s were uneconomic because of low yields (0.5 tons per acre). Over a 20-year period, grape geneticist Harold Olmo observed, selected, grew and released clones 4 and 5.

Now Chardonnay is the mostly widely planted variety in California at 92,000 acres. Nurseries estimate that 75% of these acres are clones 4 and 5.

Block estimates that the program cost less than a few $100,000 (2016 value). Between 1980 and 2012, the clones represented $14.5 billion in present value. “The return is so high that people can’t believe it.”

Cork taint (TCA)

The amount of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) in wines increased in the 1980s and 1990s to affect nearly 6% of all wines. A new analytical technique that allows rapid sampling was developed by Susan Ebeler and Christian Butzke in 1995 and transferred to Electronic Testing Laboratories (ETS). The result was the Cork QC program and a major reduction in TCA rate. This saved $3.4 billion (2012 value) from 2006 to 2012, as the TCA rate dropped from 5% to 1%.

This development also cost less than $100,000.

Grape breeding in the Walker Lab

Andy Walker’s first rootstock breeding program released GRN-1 through GRN-5 (Grape Rootstocks for Nematodes) to resist aggressive strains of root-knot, dagger, lesion, citrus nematodes and phylloxera. Bred in 1993 and 1994, they were released to nurseries in 2008 and to growers in 2011.

The lab is now combining broad nematode resistance with salt and drought resistance, and advanced selections are in field testing.

Wine grape breeding program

The first few 97.5% V. vinifera Pierce’s disease-resistant selections are ready for release to nurseries in late 2016 and to growers in 2019.

These vines demonstrate the potential of classical breeding to 97% vinifera in about 10 years, grapes that progressed from peppery, herbaceous wines with blue-purple pigments to high-quality vinifera characteristics.

About 20 more will be released in the next 10 years. They are classically bred with resistance from V. arizonica using DNA markers to optimize selection, not genetic modification. They have been field test tested with numerous industry-based wine tastings. The first commercial-scale wines will be made at Caymus in the fall of 2016.