Grapevine European catalogue: towards a comprehensive list

Abstract

The present attempt to establish a comprehensive and harmonized list of grapevine varieties authorized in Europe represents the contribution of the group of experts within the project GrapeGen06. In no case is this work intended to substitute for administrative initiatives in progress and has the sole aim to make available to professionals a usable document. To the involved people, the list presented here is a tool that will facilitate the implementation of the European regulations on grapevine. It also offers a panorama of the European grapevine genetic potential, thus enabling to specify whose responsibilities are involved and how much efforts should be produced to plan a sound genetic resources protection and further breeding. In this respect it is worth to underline the fact that over half of the varieties are registered in only one Member State. This opens new perspectives emphasizing the importance of European inter-institute cooperation for sharing conservation and breeding responsibilities. Considering the natural evolution of the national catalogues of grape varieties in each Member State and the progress in grape variety identification, it would be necessary to consider an annual update of this European harmonized catalogue