(Decanter) - Andrew Jefford reports from the vineyard front line in the battle against the 'ever-worsening' problem of grapevine trunk disease.   

 

A winegrower’s most precious possession is his or her vines.  Winery equipment can be repaired or replaced; the land itself is a given; the weather is beyond control.  The vines, though, are the channel or junction through which the potential of the place and the season becomes a harvest.  They are the winegrower’s vegetative children: the immediate future of the enterprise.  Many challenges keep winegrowers awake at night, but none is more insidious, more threatening to their livelihoods or more exhausting to resolve than the ever-worsening problem of grapevine trunk disease (GTD).