Speaking from the OIV’s headquarters in Paris, by web conference, Director General Pau Roca presented on 20 April, information on wine production, consumption and international trade in 2020.
OIV State of the vitivinicultural world in 2020 report
Watch the replay
The pandemic halted important activities such as direct contact with Member countries at their working environment. The evolution of the sanitary conditions brings new signs of optimism, allowing the return of physical meetings, even if under strict conditions.
The official visit of the Director General of the OIV, Pau Roca, to Portugal last week is proof of this. It represents the kick-off for future visits to different countries, aiming to strengthen the important contact with its 48 Member Countries.
Portugal: a founding member of the OIV since 1924
During the two days spent in Portugal, Pau Roca participated in several activities with different representatives of the sector. On 5 May, accompanied by the President of the Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho (IVV), Bernardo Gouvêa, the OIV Director was received by the Portuguese Minister for Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes. A meeting where the strong cooperation and dynamism of the country with the OIV were highlighted.
The following day, ACIBEV: Associação de Vinhos e Espirituosas de Portugal (Association of Wines and Spirits of Portugal), organised a hybrid conference in which the Director General spoke about the State of the Vitivinicultural World in 2020. A presentation followed by session of questions & answers with the participation of personalities from the Portuguese wine sector. In the conference opening speech, ACIBEV’s President Jorge Monteiro welcomed the OIV Director, thanking him for his presence and contribution to the sector. Considerations shared by Bernardo Gouvêa, who showed his high appreciation of the work developed by the OIV and its close relation with Portugal, when closing the conference.
To top the agenda, on the same day Pau Roca had the opportunity to visit the Experimental Centre for the Conservation of the Variability of Autochthonous Grapevines, managed by the Portuguese Association for Grapevine Diversity (PORVID*) under a partnership protocol signed with the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture.
Portuguese research reflected in OIV resolutions
This centre, managed by PORVID, is a pioneer infrastructure dedicated to the integral conservation of grapevine varieties’ diversity (intravarietal diversity) aiming to add value, adaptability and sustainability to vitiviniculture. Ten years after its foundation, over 30 000 genotypes are already conserved with the final aim being to secure 50 000 of all 250 varieties native of Portugal.
This living genetic bank materialises innovation from knowledge through the provision of polyclonal selections for both grape growers and winemakers, a novel methodology created in Portugal and, since 2019, recognised by the OIV through a resolution unanimously adopted by all its Member Countries. This recognition made the methodology globally accessible, opening the path for global conservation of the original diversity of ancient grapevine varieties in vineyards across the world. See resolution OIV-VITI 564B-2019
A result of the work developed by the centre could be appreciated at the end of the visit with a tasting of wines experimentally made from little known Portuguese varieties. The tasting was guided by António Graça, OIV’s ENVIRO’s expert group Secretary who represents Sogrape at PORVID. Sercialinho, Tinta Francisca or Touriga Fêmea were among the tasted wines, varieties that according to Graça “could be extinct nowadays if this conservation work had not been started 40 years ago”.
Pau Roca thanked the visit and the presentation of the project, stating that "in this type of approach for the conservation of biodiversity and understanding of nature lies the future of world vitiviniculture".
The OIV Director General concluded by congratulating those responsible for the results already visible and for involving the OIV in its worldwide dissemination.
*About Porvid
PORVID is a non-profit association created in 2009 with the objective of conserving and adding value from the genetic diversity and wild populations of grapevines. In 2010, the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture signed a protocol with PORVID for the creation of the Experimental Centre for the Conservation of Variability of Autochthonous Grapevines, placing it under its management for a period of 50 years. Integrated by a municipality, public institutes, universities, technical associations, private companies and independent entrepreneurs, PORVID surveys and collects extinction-threatened grapevines from old vineyards, giving priority for those marked for plucking-off and conserves them in collections of each variety’s diversity that eventually become objects of study. The knowledge generated by these studies becomes the basis for polyclonal selections allowing growers to plant vineyards that synergize economic efficiency with resilience and sustainability. Having published a relevant corpus of scientific papers, PORVID also supports diversity conservation efforts beyond Portuguese borders.
Water resources, at global, regional and local levels are now recognised to be under severe pressure. Sustainable use of water has now become a societal, environmental, industry and business imperative across the globe, and a core policy for many governments, industries and commercial entities. Increasingly, social licence shall be dependent on the sound environmental credentials of all players in the supply chain, with sustainable water use as a leading theme.
Many vineyard areas in more recently developed, semi-arid or arid regions have annual rainfall which cannot reliably support modern viticultural systems. Meanwhile, in other long-established systems, rainfall quantity and reliability has become inadequate or unreliable, making it difficult to meet supply chain demands for quality and supply assurance.
Production systems have been further differentiated and adapted in the light of local conditions and resource availability (including water), informed by experience and relevant R&D, and according to the requirements of continually evolving markets.
In this sense, the “Sustainable Use of Water in Winegrape Vineyards” document is intended to outline key, universally relevant principles specific to the activity of growing Winegrape vineyards, bearing in mind that variability in regional resource and environmental considerations, site characteristics and enterprise circumstances may be substantial, so requiring adaptation in practice to individual circumstances.
The document has been drafted by the Viticulture Commission’s “Vine Protection and Viticultural Techniques” (PROTEC) Group and revised by other OIV Commissions.* OIV Scientific and Technical Committee chart
This document is freely available here [EN]
Another step towards sustainability
The OIV adopted in 2018 the resolution OIV-VITI 569-2018 “OIV protocol for the sustainable use of water in viticulture” whose main objective is to define good water management practices based on principles of sustainability established in the OIV-CST 518-2016 resolution “OIV general principles of sustainable vitiviniculture - environmental - social - economic and cultural aspects”.
The OIV, aware that this resolution should be accompanied by a document that spelled out certain technical and scientific aspects, decided to create a document of collective expertise within the PROTEC Group, with the objective that this document could be a tool for reference and guidance for the sector regarding the sustainable use of water. Furthermore, this document seeks to respond to the objectives of the OIV’s Strategic Plan for the period 2020-2024, particularly axis 1 “Promote environmentally-friendly vitiviniculture” through points B and C: “Improvement of environmental performance” and “Preservation of natural resources”.
*OIV collective expertise documents are not submitted to the Step Procedure for Examining Resolutions and can under no circumstances be treated as OIV resolutions. Only resolutions adopted by the Member States of the OIV have an official character
Vine sciences will be at the forefront of the global vitivinicultural stage on 6-10 September 2021 in Alcala de Henares, Madrid (Spain), with the celebrated return of the OIV International Course in Ampelography.
On 6-10 September 2021, the "El Encín" collection of vine varieties will host nationally and internationally renowned professors for 5 days of theoretical and practical in-person classes designed to allow participants to exchange, update and/or deepen their knowledge about ampelography. The practical approach will make it possible to clearly and precisely identify vine varieties in the field, pointing to all the key characteristics to recognise these.
Places are limited and course registration is open until 31 July 2021! To register, send an email to oivampelography@oiv.int.
Complete information and detailed programme here