The main event for NGRA’s Annual Meeting of the Members at the beginning of each year is our elections. Although our term of office for officers is one year, we’ve been fortunate to have low turnover among our leadership. So, officer elections have become pretty routine for NGRA for the last few years. Then 2023 […]
Succeeding at Succession
NGRA Elects 2023 Officer and Board Directors
Jessica Youngblood Is First Midwest Grape Grower to Serve as Board Chair SACRAMENTO, CA, February 6, 2023 — At the Annual Meeting of the Members on January 23, 2023, the members of the National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA) elected and/or re-elected officers and Board Directors for the organization. The election installed a leadership team that’s […]
Not Groundhog Day
Obviously, I’m a fan of all grape research. I enjoy attending academic conferences and listening to scientific talks, reading abstracts and sifting through industry media for the science that breaks through to the news. But what really makes my day is learning about research that takes the unexpected turn, when scientists come at a problem […]
Red Blotch: An Old Vector and New Inoculum Confirmed
By Marc Fuchs, Cornell University Red blotch disease was described almost 15 years ago in California as a new threat to the grape and wine industries. Caused by grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV), the disease lowers vine vigor and yield, reduces fruit quality and degrades wine composition, resulting in reported losses of up to $170,000 […]
2023 Rich Smith Award of Excellence Presented to Marty Clubb
SACRAMENTO, CA, January 25, 2023 – The seventh annual Rich Smith Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the American grape and wine industry was presented today to Marty Clubb, co-owner and managing winemaker of L’Ecole No 41, a premium winery in Walla Walla, Washington, and a major contributor to the Washington and American wine […]
Our North Star
In 2022, NGRA engaged a strategic planning professional, Randy Harrington of Strategic Arts & Sciences, to lead us through a process of planning for the next three to five years of growth and evolution—to NGRA 2.0, as one Board member put it. But in working on our strategic plan and revisiting the data that informed […]
Saving Wild Vitis: The Conservation of North American Native Grapes Workshop
By the North American Grapevine Conservation Working Group Genetic variation provides the foundation for plant breeding. And in viticulture, the diversity in native North American Vitis species is critical for generating resilient grapevines. For example, numerous cold-hardy North American Vitis species have been used to generate the hybrid “French-American” scions commonly cultivated in midwestern and […]
On Location, in Real Time
November brought the most intensive travel schedule I’ve attempted since before the pandemic. Across three weeks and three states (Texas, Arkansas and California), I attended three conferences; hosted NGRA’s Year-End Board meeting and dinner; toured beautiful (and tasty) Arkansas Wine Country and sampled muscadine grapes and wine, both for the first time. Here are some […]
What’s Really Scary…
Happy Halloween! This evening will bring kids to your door seeking tricks or treats. Mostly, their costumes will reflect cultural themes, like characters from movies or comics. And often, those characters and costumes have some unfortunate tie to science. Much to the chagrin of those of who care about and support research, science is the […]
$10M SCRI Project Seeks to Defy Diseases
A team of researchers received the first round of funding from a $10 million grant awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) to begin a multi-disciplinary, collaborative project focused on cultivating disease-resistant grapes that can be grown sustainably with reduced pesticide and fossil fuel use. The national, multi-institutional project […]