(Wines&Vines) - The world’s lesser-known winegrape varieties will get a chance to take center stage as the focus of a symposium during this year’s annual conference of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. Registration is now open for the conference scheduled June 18-22 in Portland, Ore. In addition to the session about alternative varieties, the conference also will feature a Willamette Valley vineyard technical tour and tasting, more than 140 reports about ongoing research projects and a review of the late Ralph Kunkee’s pivotal research into microbiology.