Grant: Engage Grants Program

The BC Wine Grape Council (BCWGC) coordinates, facilitates, and funds research and education on viticulture and enology to broadly benefit the British Columbia wine grape industry and to represent growers on a variety of agriculture-related issues. The vast majority of the BC grape and wine industry has joined the BCWGC. Currently, 150 wineries and 321 grape growers are members of the BCWGC. Viticulture in BC faces numerous challenges. Cold winters and a short growing season are serious constraints for grape cultivation. Nevertheless, BC is a major wine producer in Canada and the quality of BC wines has been internationally recognised. Viticultural practices such as crop size adjustments are critical to sustaining grape and wine productions. BC's short growing season requires higher leaf area/crop weight ratios to grow premium grapes than it is necessary in other viticultural regions, where the growing season is longer and the climatic conditions less limiting. The quality of white grapes and wines is strongly influenced by the amount of aromatics that are accumulated in the grape tissues. Particularly, terpene compounds determine the typical aroma of several grapes and wines. Recent experiments in Okanagan vineyards have indicated that high crop sizes (~6 tons per acre) can deteriorate the grape and wine aroma in aromatic varieties. Very limited information is available on the optimal crop size for white grapes and, particularly, on how crop size impacts the berry ripening process and berry composition. In this project, we will compare three levels of crop size, as well as two times of applications of the treatment in a Gewürztraminer vineyard. We will investigate the effect(s) of these treatments on berry growth and metabolism (sugars, acids, abscisic acid, and terpenes). The goal of this project is to identify how BC growers can manage crop size to improve both fruit ripening and the accumulation of terpenes in grapes.