“What will become of the Vassal ampelographic collection?
Domaine de Vassal ampelographic collection
- 7500 accessions from 47 countries
- 2300 grape varieties (Vitis vinifera L.)
- 800 producer interspecific hybrids
- 230 rootstocks
Moving the collection – (AIV 2013)
- Listel owns the Vassal land, forward lease
- Relocation of basic collection to Pech Rouge (INRA)
- Conservation + sanitization duplicates at Mauguio (EU Diascope)
- Enhancing genetic resources: under discussion
Risks and fears – (AIV 2013)
- Coming decades: soil salinization – rising seas
- Transfer duration: 5-10 years
- Fear of Vassal’s abandonment
- Fear of grafting
- Fear of lack of funding
- Loss of genetic diversity
http://www.petitions24.net/defense_vassal
Request to the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Research, copy to the Director of INRA
Moving – 2014 decisions
- collection
- basic phenotyping
- grape/wine phenotyping
Pech Rouge, a winegrowing EU in the center of Montpellier, in Gruissan (Aude)
- Storage duplicates
- sanitation
- advanced phenotyping
Domaine de Mauguio, UE Diascope (Hérault)
Moving – INRA communication – Thierry Lacombe
“Inra’s ambition remains above all to secure an exceptional shared public scientific heritage”.
- number of accessions (7500 x 5 plants)
- duration of the operation (approximately 5 to 8 years)
- sanitary constraints (INRA’s desire to sanitize the entire collection)
- keep duplicates
- financial investment (need for long-term public funding)
Moving – Petitioner communication – Bruno Chevallet
“The world’s largest collection of vines, a national living heritage in danger!”
– 5000 signatories
– proposals to buy back the collection (Russia and USA)!
– project halted in 2015? (INRA budget cut?).
– discussions resumed with the Vranken group (Listel), failure of the Pech Rouge project?