Building a more predictive model of terroir for the Anthropocene

Societal Impact Statement Climate change and shifts in management have produced a new world of challenges for most winegrape growers, including increasing sugar levels and altered pest and weather regimes. This new world has elevated the importance of exploiting the genetic diversity of winegrapes and wild Vitis relatives. Here, we argue that how well we exploit genetic diversity will depend on our understanding of “terroir,” especially how the environment interacts with different cultivars (varieties). Addressing this challenge could revolutionize grape growing but will require researchers and growers to work together on new approaches to collect and synthesize data. Summary Anthropogenic climate change has produced a new world of challenges for many wild species and crops, including shifted ranges and phenology, alongside altered pest and weather regimes. These impacts are especially apparent in winegrapes, which has elevated the importance of exploiting the genetic diversity of the crop and its wild relatives. Here, we argue that how well growers can exploit this diversity will depend on our understanding of “terroir,” especially how the environment interacts with different genotypes (varieties). We argue that a globally predictive framework for winegrowing is possible but requires greater efforts to integrate the genetic diversity of vinifera and other Vitis species. This includes distributed approaches and efforts to synthesize data, especially across rootstock scion experiments, which currently focus on one site alone. The opportunity and need for this transition, however, has never been greater, as climate change means the climate of each region is shifting over time—often towards the climate of another region, making the need to build a predictive framework that works across regions increasingly urgent.