Keynote speakers

Cornelis (Kees) van Leeuwen is professor of viticulture and head of the viticulture-oenology department at Bordeaux Sciences Agro. Kees van Leeuwen conducts research on the concept of terroir in viticulture, including the effect of environmental constraints (water and nitrogen), phenology modelling and the impact of climate change in viticulture. Output of this research can help growers to optimize terroir expression and to adapt to a changing environment. Kees van Leeuwen is the founder and editor in chief of the viticulture section of the international peer reviewed open access journal OENO One.

My research activity focuses on the adaptation of perennial crops, including grapevine, to climate change conditions in the Mediterranean area. I combine ecophysiological and modeling approaches to identify key plant traits that confer greater tolerance to water stress and high temperatures. To achieve this objective, I consider, on one hand, the variations within large populations of cultivars, which can be phenotyped either in field or controlled conditions using state-of-the-art high-throughput phenotyping methods. On the other hand, I also investigate the potential of agroecological practices to mitigate the impact of climate change in vineyards.

Session: Physiological responses to abiotic and biotic stress 

Christel Renaud-Gentié is senior lecturer in viticulture at GRAPPE research unit, in ESA (USC INRAE) in Angers, in the Loire Valley, France. After a pHD on environmental assessment of viticultural practices by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Christel Renaud-Gentié is pursuing her research, with a team, by developing LCA methodology as well as participatory approaches and tools for eco-design in viticulture with winegrowers, wine sector stakeholders and students. Different research projects and doctoral theses on this subject permitted the creation of a serious game called Vitigame® to facilitate ecodesign workshops in viticulture, and a software for streamlined LCA calculation in viticulture called Vit’LCA®. She works in interaction with economists, sociologists, and ecologists, to include various dimensions in the assessment of viticultural practices. She teaches Bsc and Msc students on environmental questions in viticulture, LCA and ecodesign in viticulture, and general viticulture, and supervises phD’s and master’s theses and projects on the same subjects. 

Session: Organic and sustainable viticulture

Nathalie Ollat received a Ph.D. in agronomic sciences from Montpellier Supagro (France), with emphases in viticulture and plant physiology. Dr. Ollat joined the INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research, now INRAe National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) viticulture research center in Bordeaux (France) in 1988, to implement studies on training systems. After dealing with berry development during her Ph-D, she initiated, in the early 2000s, a research program on the interactions of grapevine rootstocks with biotic and abiotic factors. Dr. Ollat and her research team have studied the impact of rootstocks on grapevine nutrition, water intake, vine growth and yields, providing a body of knowledge useful to breed new rootstocks. She is currently coordinating the national program for grapevine rootstock breeding.

Since 2010, Dr. Ollat expanded her research efforts to focus on the impact of climate change on grape growing. She has co-directed the “LACCAVE” program on long-term impacts and adaptations to climate change in viticulture and oenology in France (2012-2020), coordinating the research activities related to this topic in 23 french laboratories. A major outcome of this project was the definition of a national strategy to adapt to climate change by the french wine sector, supporting her ability to work closely with the industry. A recent book was also published (Vine, Wine and Climate Change) and granted by OIV. In April 2018, she was promoted to the position of director of the Research Unit for Vine Ecophysiology and Functional Genomics (UMR EGFV) within the University of Bordeaux (ISVV: Institute for Sciences of Vine and Wine). She is also leading the International Joined Laboratory between ISVV and the Grapevine Laboratory of the Beijing Institute of Botany/Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

She has published about 100 manuscripts over her carrier and was granted in 2023 with the Vermeil Medal of the French Academy of Agriculture.

Session: Varieties and rootstocks in response to future challenges  

Dr. Sigfredo Fuentes is an Associate Professor in Digital Agriculture, Food, and Wine Sciences at the School of Agriculture, Food, and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne. As a Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, he focuses on innovative research combining agricultural science and space technology. In addition to his role Dr. Fuentes serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at both Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico and The University of Talca in Chile, fostering international collaboration and advancing the field of digital agriculture and Food Sciences.

Session: Digitization, mechanization and robotics

Ilona Leyer is a professor of biodiversity and ecosystem functions at the Department of Applied Ecology at Geisenheim University. After studying biology, she received her PhD in Ecology from Bonn University, Germany, with studies on floodplain grasslands and their changes by hydrological alterations. After working at the universities of Halle/Saale and Marburg, focusing on research into factors for the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecological processes in various ecosystems, she joint Geisenheim University in 2012. 

She and her team investigate how the restoration of biological and structural diversity as well as ecosystem services can be feasibly implemented in viticulture. They focus on biodiversity-ecosystem service interactions, their responses to vineyard and landscape management and their effects on product quality and production. Two different scales are considered in order to identify management options, the vineyard scale where soil and vegetation management is one of the main drivers for biodiversity and related processes and the landscape scale operating through its level of heterogeneity and connectivity within and around vineyard areas. Research questions concern the potential for more diversity of different taxa groups through changes in vineyard configuration, adapted revegetation management with special seed mixtures and inter-row management taking into account surrounding landscape factors and structures. 

The close interaction between research and practice as well as transfer of knowledge is of great importance to her. The different perspectives ensure that the research results are successfully implemented in practice.

Session: Maintaining and improving biodiversity

Dr. Zhanwu Dai is a full professor in the Beijing Key Laboratory of Grape Science and Enology and Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences at Beijing. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Avignon (France) and China Agricultural University (China). After his PhD and during 2010-2019, he worked at INRAe Bordeaux, France as an associated professor, then he started to create his own lab at IB-CAS in 2019. He worked actively with colleagues from INRAe and IB-CAS to establish an international associated lab ‘INNOGRAPE’ between INRAe, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux Sci Agro and IB-CAS in 2018. His research focuses on the understanding and modeling of the responses of grape berry quality to environments (light, temperature, water...) and nutrients (carbon, nitrogen...), in order to better understand the accumulation dynamics of primary (sugars and organic acids) and secondary (e.g. polyphenols) metabolites in grape berry, under changing environmental conditions. Integrative approaches combing ecophysiology, modeling, omics, and molecular analyses are applied to obtain holistic views of the studied system, in order to provide supports for a sustainable viticulture industry. He has published about 70 peer-reviewed journals, including Trends in Plant Science, Plant Cell, New Phytologist, Journal of Experimental Botany, Annals of Botany, Tree physiology etc

Session: Data management/modelling 

Markus Keller is the Chateau Ste. Michelle Distinguished Professor of Viticulture at Washington State University. With a PhD in natural science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, research and teaching have taken him across North and South America, Europe, and Australia. His research focuses on how environment and management influence crop physiology and sustainable production of wine and juice grapes. He is the author of the textbook “The Science of Grapevines” and serves as the science editor for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. 

Session: Adaptation to and mitigation of global warming 

Climate change is affecting vine and grape physiology and consequently wine composition, causing a decrease in titratable acidity and an increase in ethanol content and pH. These effects are especially problematic in sparkling wines that need higher acidity to maintain an adequate freshness. Therefore, the wine industry is currently using certain procedures for reducing wine pH, among which cation exchange stands out as it is probably the most widely used. This talk will address the effects of using cation exchange to reduce pH on the composition and quality of sparkling wine (Cava).

Session: Challenges of sparkling wine production in response to climate change