Adapting crops to climate change
New varieties of wine grapes and stone fruits developed in Murcia
MURCIA region is marketing four new varieties of grapes for wine, which have been developed
nd from the Monastrell variety.
Called Calblanque, Calnegre, Gebas and Myrtia, their registration and authorisation is the culmination of 26 years of research and development by the Murcia institute for agrarian and environmental research and development (IMIDA), explained regional agriculture councillor Sara Rubia.
“It is the first public research centre in Spain to achieve this,” she assured during the presentation at the protected designation of origin (PDO) Jumilla quality wines competition.
“The new varieties developed have different characteristics which make them unique, such as adaptation to climate change, resistance to scarcity of water and phenolic qualities.”
Phenolic qualities imply better quality in wines, and these ‘daughters of Monastrell’ are characterised by intense flavour and body, and are very well balanced.
Their resistance to the droughts and high temperatures that are typical of Murcia region means they will be better able to adapt to climate change and make winemaking more sustainable, as well as innovative since they are new and unique.
Marketing them has now begun, thanks to an agreement with the nursery Provedo, which will start multiplying these vines this year until there are enough plants to put them on sale.
The agriculture department’s plant health service has certified that the material provided to the nursery is free of any viruses.
The material was pruned and collected in the presence of plant health service technicians, who labelled the cuttings and sealed them in individual bags, which only they were allowed to open once they arrived at the nursery.
Wine companies in Murcia region turn over about €300 million per year and employ about 1,000 direct workers.
The councillor added that PDOs ‘guarantee the quality of wine, contribute towards economic, social and cultural development of rural areas and maintain their population, as well as preserving and showcasing their heritage’.
New stone fruits too
The IMIDA has also developed and registered 23 new, high quality varieties of stone fruits, which they have made available to farmers.
The fruits include Levante and Alisio peaches, Siroco paraguayos (flat peaches), Bora nectarines, and Lucía and Victoria plums, amongst others.
Like the new varieties of grapes, they are better adapted to the current climate, mature earlier, have high quality taste, good size, high productivity and a good shelf life.
Sra Rubira said this enables farmers to produce these fruits sooner, at times when other varieties are not yet on the market, and therefore consumers can acquire them over a longer period.
The IMIDA department for genetic improvement of fruit evaluated over 50,000 crossed varieties of peaches and is currently studying more that could be registered soon if the results are good.
Different departments at the IMIDA have spent decades developing programmes to find new varieties, which can take five or 10 years until they become productive.