Vines are also affected by viruses. The most difficult one in France since several decades back is court-noué, which is also found in other countries. In English, it is called grapevine fanleaf virus. It is spread by nematodes (a kind of worm) in the soil.
Champagne, Burgundy and Sancerre are among the regions hardest hit. But the disease is found in many more places around the world. Its effect is that quantity is reduced and sometimes also the quality of the grapes. There is no cure or way to fight it.
The only thing you can do today is pull up the infected vineyards and let the soil lie dormant, preferably for seven years, the time it takes for the nematodes to disappear. It is a long time that in practice will be ten years or more before you can get grapes from that vineyard again.
However, new solutions are getting closer. A kind of vaccine is one possibility. In 2021 and 2022, the French research institute l’Inrae will do trial “vaccinations” on rootstocks that are then planted on highly infected vineyards to evaluate its effectiveness.
Another possibility is to develop a rootstock that is resistant to court-noué. In fact, one already exists, but its other properties are not good, so the researchers have a few years ahead of them trying out different crossings. (Source: La Vigne.)
