The WiVitis project, a collaborative initiative across France, Germany and Switzerland, has generated a number of findings related to PIWIs and their climate resilience. The berry skin stability of multiple PIWI varieties was tested for heat resilience, sunburn resilience and Botrytis susceptibility, leading to the generation of a structural classification of epicuticular wax structures, among other things.
The research is fascinating and I am indebted to Dr Katja Herzog at Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), Germany, Dr Michael Riemann at Research Institute for Organic Agriculture, Swizterland, and Lukasz Tarkowski at Grand Est-Colmar, INRAE, France for their generosity in sharing the latest findings from the collaborative effort for my piece with Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker magazine.
Image courtesy of Lukasz Tarkowski.