Autochthonous Grapevine Varieties From Argentina

Minor cultivars provide an opportunity to offer original products in a global market and to combat global warming. Recent evidence brought to light the existing diversity within the group of autochthonous cultivars from Argentina and other South American countries, commonly known as criollas. We show here the results of more than 10 years of study concerning different aspects: identification, rescue and conservation of genotypes, and the characterization of their agronomic and enological potential. We have identified around 49 different criollas of which 34 were previously unknown. The characterization in the field showed that a group of them present an interesting enological potential for wine and sparkling wine. The diversity within the South American cultivars is higher than previously thought. Ancient vineyards, located in isolated valleys, are reservoirs of minor cultivars, and growers have played a key role in maintaining and conserving them. A challenge to the future is to perform a deep characterization of this diversity in terms of responses to biotic or abiotic stresses and its potential use.