Citizen Science to the Rescue! Scrape for the Grape Eliminates Millions of Spotted Lanternflies in Virginia On Saturday, April 6, 2024, nearly 400 Loudoun County, VA, residents rose up in defense of their beloved vineyards and wineries to “Scrape for the Grape.” This innovative and fun citizen science initiative unleashed volunteers armed with credit-card-sized Scrape […]
Projects Underway
Snag Some Gently Used Automation Equipment
Are you an extension agent, germplasm curator or viticulturist looking to automate vineyard trial plots? Or a forward-thinking farmer seeking to dip a toe in or upgrade your mechanization game? Scheid Family Wines is offering three V-Mech units designed for mechanized pre-pruning and/or shoot thinning, each located at their vineyard in Greenfield, CA. Get the […]
Nick Dokoozlian Honored with Rich Smith Award
SACRAMENTO, CA, January 25, 2024 – The eighth annual Rich Smith Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the American grape and wine industry was presented yesterday to Dr. Nick Dokoozlian, Vice President of Winegrowing Research at E. & J. Gallo Winery and Research Chair of the National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA). The prestigious award […]
Remembering Deb Golino
Deborah Golino, the Director of UC Davis’ Foundation Plant Services (FPS) until her retirement in 2021, passed away on December 23, 2023. She was 70. Deborah was a long-time NGRA Board member. Later, she would become one of our first three Science Advisory Council members, appointed in 2020. She was ever an ally, advisor and […]
The Clock Is Ticking: The Need for Precision Grape Breeding
By Margaret Leigh Worthington On June 7, 2023, Margaret Leigh Worthington, Associate Professor of Horticulture and Director of the Fruit Breeding Program at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, testified at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics and Research on the Farm Bill’s Horticulture Title, […]
USDA-ARS Celebrates 100 Years of Grape Breeding
On September 11, 2023, at the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center (SJVASC) in Parlier, CA, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) celebrated the 100th anniversary of the USDA-ARS Grape Breeding Program. Its century of cooperative grape breeding research has impacted the way the world grows, cultivates and consumes grapes—and changed the very grapes themselves. This […]
The 2024 Rich Smith Award of Excellence
Nominations closed October 27, 2023
Research Priorities Refresh: A Labor of Love
Continuing from my report on the Midyear Board Meetingon June 26, 2023, in Napa, I’m turning the lens to the research focus of the NGRA Midyear Board meeting on June 26. Our robust agenda included in-depth reports on ongoing and prospective new research, and most importantly, included an exciting update of our industry research priorities […]
Cornell—and Grapes—Chosen for Specialty Crop Focus for NASA Acres
By Mike Hibbard for Cornell AgriTech For more than 50 years, NASA and partner agencies have used satellite imagery to map agriculture worldwide with an eye toward global supply and food security. That technology, however, has largely focused on commodity and row crops. But with the recent launch of a new consortium, dubbed NASA Acres, the […]
Fruit at First Leaf
By Kyle Freedman, Amanda Lewis, Cristian Collado, Ricardo Hernández and Mark Hoffmann Researchers at North Carolina State University are working on changing a fundamental aspect of grape growing: that new vines require at least two years to produce usable fruit. Their project, called Precise Indoor Vine Conditioning (PIVC), conducted in collaboration with lighting partner Current, […]