Grapevine European Catalogue: Towards a Comprehensive List

Starting from the 1950’s, different European countrieshave established official lists of grapevine varieties authorizedto be cultivated. The objectives of such lists were tolimit ambiguous denomination of varieties and the relatedtrade conflicts, as well as the implementation of viticulturerecovery politics through the support of certain varietiesand the limitation of others. In the same direction, in 1968the European Union (EU) decided to create a “commoncatalogue of varieties”, defined as the sum of current nationalcatalogues (Council Directive of 9 April 1968 “onthe marketing of material for the vegetative propagation ofthe vine”, 68/193/EEC, modified). These catalogues (alsocalled “registers”) include all the wine varieties “classified”by each Member State within the framework of theCommon Organisation of the Market in wine (CouncilDirective No 479/2008), as well as all the non-classifiedvarieties (table grape, rootstocks, etc.).For this work, we took the opportunity of the Europeanresearch program “GrapeGen06”, focused on thestudy and the preservation of grapevine genetic resources,to contribute to the establishment and improvement of suchan European catalogue. The comprehensive survey aimsat two objectives: to support the implementation of Europeanregulations on propagation of grapevine plants withinthe EU, and to assess priority actions, by technical and researchinstitutes, for the conservation of grapevine geneticresources.