Burgundy launches biodiversity project

Published: 01 May, 2009

Burgundy is taking a lesson from the New World in launching its first large-scale biodiversity project.

The French Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB) and the viticultural association of Burgundy (ATVB) have joined forces to bring together around 50 estates to embrace biodiversity, in a first for an Old World wine region.

Faced with an uncertain future, threatened with climate change and environmental turmoil, the project is being seen as essential to preserve Burgundy's unique terroir.

The project aims to preserve up to 200 diverse grape varieties for centuries to come.

· The Regional Centre for Innovation and Agri-environment Technology Transfer (CRITT) has launched a genetic characterization project to evaluate the overall biodiversity in the region, manage collection of seedlings and facilitate the selection of seedlings available to wine-growers.

T This means that it will be possible to characterize the different clones and safeguard several lines of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to create a reserve of seedlings, which in the future can be suited to climatic conditions.

Over the next ten years the partnership will be carrying out an intensive program to set up the partnership. Thousands of clones will be conserved, in greenhouses and on the plots.

More information is available on www.burgundy-wines.fr

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