Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/603228
36 DECEMBER 2015 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com grower to make a 20- or 30-year investment if they ultimately use one of these new varieties." While Cornell released both Aromella and Arandell in 2013, they took different courses in development. Aromella resulted from a cross made in 1976, while Arandell came from an initial cross in 1995. Reisch said the Cornell team fast-tracked Arandell because it showed exceptional disease resistance even in complete no-spray conditions. In addition, he said, "Wine testing early on—even from the first single vine that was grown and produced—indicated that it had very good wine potential, so we scaled that one up quickly, sent it out for further trials, and got it to cooperating growers as quickly as we could." Aromella, on the other hand, had to wait for the market to evolve. Although Aromella was one of the most winter-hardy grapes in the Cornell program and produced highly rated aromatic wines, the industry only recently became interested in fruit with those qualities, he said. "In grape development, sometimes it's a question of market timing." Reisch doesn't have a crystal ball to tell him which grape will be the next hot ticket, so he talks to growers and others in the industry, tries to keep on top of consumer inclinations, and maintains a diversity of traits in new varieties. "We just try to balance our pro- gram so we're not caught short in any one particular area: We have whites, we have reds, and we're always looking for more neutral types, Riesling types, or Sauvignon Blanc types," he said. "We've made crosses in recent years with Albariño and Merlot and Teroldego, which is a grape from cooler areas of northern Italy, so we're trying to expand the base of quality genes that we are using and at the same time using grape vine species as sources of disease resistance and cold hardiness." Good contenders for future Cornell releases include one especially disease-resistant, red- wine grape developed for colder regions, as well as a Riesling hybrid. The red-wine grape has "particular genes that we've never deployed in other grapes," he said, noting that it was developed for colder regions, such as New York vineyards. "The wine-quality tests are in their early phases, but the initial tests over the last two or three years look to be very good. We're hoping to get that sent out soon to cooperating growers." The Riesling hybrid has rot-resistant characteristics combined with a wine quality approaching that of Riesling, he said. "We don't know when or if it would be released, but this is one of the grapes that is being considered." Which will be released next? That's hard to say, Reisch said. "What we do from year to year depends on the data that we get from year to year." • COURTESY OF BRUCE REISCH Cornell researchers derived downy and powdery mildew-resistant DNA markers from Muscadine grapes grown in the South, and they and other researchers are continuing work on additional markers for various traits. These markers allow new varieties of grapes to be preemptively screened for certain desirable traits. 1-800-461-5539 4857 Contractors Dr. East Wenatchee, WA 98802 www.valleytractor.com www.kubota.com ©Kubota Tractor Corporation, 2011 Our Valley Tractor People Ensure That Promise Is Kept. Our Promise To You Is To Deliver Outstanding Service Before, During, and After the Sale. Model M8540 See Us At The 2015 Hort Show!