Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief summary of minutes from annual meeting:

The Annual Technical Committee meeting was hosted by Dan Ward of Rutgers/NJAES in Cape May, New Jersey on 14-15 Nov. 2017. Meeting was called to order with brief introductions and call of states was immediately followed by formation of subcommittees. Much of the planning for the project was framed by the establishment of the new subcommittees and the discussion of the charges of each subcommittee.

The Viticulture committee was charged with revising NE1020 protocols for use by all participants. Viticulture discussion included wine making concerns especially for participants without enology facilities at their institutions. Enology collaborators may be used as long as a uniform protocol (as adopted by NE1020 previously) is followed. Screening Trials and Evaluation Trials will use the protocol developed by the viticulture committee. An additional category (not included in proposal for project) of trials unique to each participant was created to include coordinated reporting of these unique cultivar trials to the NE1720 committee. Provisional category name to be Coordinated Exploratory Trials.

The Data Collection committee was charged with developing standardized data collection protocol and tools. The possibility of a web-based data collection mechanism was discussed and will be further considered by the committee, but until further notice the use of a standardized spreadsheet for data entry and submission was encouraged. The use of weather data from stations not in direct physical proximity to each research vineyard was proposed and investigation of this option charged to the committee. A small set of response and environmental variables will be established as requirements for each participating site to minimize costs and maximize generalizability of results. Annual report was decided to specifically require a list of all varieties under test as part of the NE1720 by each participant.

The Outputs and Milestones committee was charged with planning and coordinating publications and group outputs. Using the data from the previous NE1020 perhaps in conjunction with new NE1720 data to produce peer-reviewed publication of group results rapidly was proposed and acceptable as a goal. Web-based and journal-based publications will be explored. The use of the existing websites for more rich and attractive presentations will be investigated. If new alternatives need to be used, they will be investigated as well. The outputs need to emphasize the value of descriptive research to generate and develop hypotheses for further research. A searchable database that summarizes results will be considered.

The Germplasm and Discovery committee was charged with identification of new lines (especially new materials from breeding programs), deciding how many new lines to evaluate from breeding programs, and assisting in arranging details of materials transfer agreements. Discussion of new lines revealed that for new lines from breeding programs perhaps five or six sites could receive enough vines for their Screening Trials. Each breeder needs lead time to produce the vines. Once a line to test is identified, there should be enough ready for testing in two to three years.

A discussion of promising new cultivars or selections from breeding programs or elsewhere was held. The Foundation Plant Services recently moved the National Grape Registry on the web and improved it. The site provides information on clones, nurseries where they are available, and whether they are 2010 Protocol or not. Cultivars imported by Rutgers are now available through FPS (and soon through a commercial nursery) including Casetta, Schiava grossa, Merlot clone 88BM, and Nebbiolo Chiavennasca clone. For newest cultivars being tested the critical result was agreed to be whether or not it had survived at each site.

Discussion led by Administrative Advisor Brad Hillman elucidated much of how funds flow into multi-state projects, the importance of continuity among participants, the value of training the younger researchers during their participation in the group, and explaining the broad goals and how each state’s contribution adds to them. Participants were advised to keep deliverables as a foremost goal using web-based, publicly-available outlets to disseminate results and outputs.

Locations for the next two Technical Committee Meetings were decided: Missouri in 2018 and Minnesota in 2019.

Accomplishments:

Short-term Outcomes: Subcommittees of the participants were formed to divide the work of the project. The committees created were: Viticultural Practices (chair: Joe Fiola), Data Collection (chair: Dan Ward), Outputs and Milestones (chair: Tim Martinson), and Germplasm and Discovery (chair: Matt Clark).

Outputs: Nothing to report at this time

Activities: Meeting attendees learned of the wine potential of numerous global cultivars that are not widely produced in the eastern U.S., but that may have significant potential for grape growers in the eastern U.S. During a discussion and a structured tasting exercise with wines (grown and vinified in Maryland by Joe Fiola) of these underutilized cultivars researchers learned of their potential for production in new regions and became more familiar with their properties. Among the cultivars presented were: Colombard, Grüner veltliner, Piquepoul blanc, Rousanne, Verdejo, Verdelho, Vermentino, Petite manseng, Gamaret, Garanoir, Dolcetto, Sousão, Teroldego. Researchers also learned of the importance of nitrogen nutrification during fermentation and its effects on flavor by use of a tasting of Reisling wines with different Nitrogen nutrient supplies (presented by Anna Katherine Mansfield). The importance of uniform winemaking protocols for isolating the effects of cultivar and allowing comparisons to be made among wines was understood more thoroughly and the need for standardization of methods was agreed upon.

Milestones: As planned for Objective 1, a discussion of promising new cultivars was held that covered some cultivars from the NE1020 project trials, some recently imported cultivars, and some new selections from breeding programs. This included the newly available Casetta (imported from Italy), Schiava grossa, Merlot clone 88BM, and crosses of Teroldego x Lagrein (from the breeding program of Marco Stefanini and imported from Italy). The publication of cultivars newly available through the Foundation Plant Services was announced to researchers.

As planned for Objective 3, a subcommittee was created to organize the identification of new lines to disseminate to the other NE1720 researchers, how many lines to evaluate, and details of materials transfer agreements.