Grapevine Planting Material
Superior planting material is the foundation of the Australian wine sector. High-quality germplasm that is true-to-type, of known origin and high health status is key to healthy, profitable vineyards.
Wine Australia-funded research continues to breed and evaluate rootstocks, varieties and clones which produce desirable wine quality and styles as well as being resilient to climate and environmental challenges.
Current activities relating to planting material are captured by the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan theme Our sustainability: Future proof our supply base.
Resources on this page provide knowledge from research and innovation in planting materials for the Australian grape and wine community.
National Grapevine Collection (NGC) program
Grapevine foundation resources help to secure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the Australian wine sector through the health, quality and integrity of its vineyards.
The National Grapevine Collection (NGC) is a Wine Australia initiative which began in January 2022. Led by a co-ordinator, Nick Dry of Foundation Viticulture, it is a large, integrated program of work which aims to:
- Protect and preserve Australia’s grapevine genetic resources
- Facilitate and promote the supply of healthy, true-to type grapevine planting material to Australia’s grapegrowers and winemakers
- Support propagation supply chain activities that build and strengthen sector resilience.
The NGC program supports a system of fit-for-purpose, coordinated collections and resources that are aligned to specific functions associated with NGC objectives. The collection is underpinned by two supporting pillars: a certification standard to cover the entire grapevine propagation supply chain; and a national register of grapevine varieties, clones, rootstocks and propagation assets.
There is a one-pager that summarises the program.
Success of the program relies heavily on input and engagement from a wide range of stakeholder groups, which provide ongoing strategic guidance and ensure that activities and outputs serve the needs of the entire value chain. Benefits include:
- More rapid access to new varieties, clones and rootstocks from Australian and overseas breeding programs
- Greater assurance of varietal and label integrity on Australian grape and wine products
- Reliable access to planting material of known identity and health status
- Access to DNA-verified and virus-free grapevine rootstocks for the establishment of high health source blocks
- Greater efficiency in the management of exotic biosecurity threats and outbreaks of endemic pests and diseases
Read more about current NGC activities
Some links to completed projects:
- National Germplasm Discussion Paper
- National Grapevine Collection Coordinator
- The development of a national, grape-industry strategy for the implementation of a national standard for grapevine certification – Phase 1
- The implementation of a national standard for grapevine certification – Phase 2a
Read some recent articles here:
- Collaboration key to success for the National Grapevine Collection
- Standard for grapevine propagation material a step closer
- Project to provide virus-free planting material of celebrated ‘P58’ clone and confirmation of its origins
Grapevine breeding in Australia
The Australian grape and wine sector has a long history of involvement with our national science agency, CSIRO, which commenced a wine grape research program in the early 1960s at its laboratory and field station at Merbein, Victoria. CSIRO’s importation program introduced a wide range of grapevine varieties and clones from Europe and other countries, including new virus-tested vine varieties from the University of California and new nematode-tolerant rootstocks (notably Ramsay). These varieties and rootstocks were established at the CSIRO grapevine germplasm collection at Merbein, which was relocated to nearby Irymple in 2011.
Since that time CSIRO has investigated 50,000 or more breeding lines to develop novel wine, table and dried grape varieties best suited to Australian conditions. The initial focus of the winegrape breeding program was suitability to warm irrigated regions and quality traits such as colour, acid and flavour/style. A number of winegrape cultivars were released following commercial trials and appear in the table below.
Variety | Year of release | Links |
Tarrango | 1975 | |
Taminga (W) | 1982 | |
Cienna | 2000 | |
Rubienne | 2000 | |
Tyrian | 2000 | |
Mystique | 2017 |
Wine Australia’s co-investment with CSIRO began in the late 1990’s, when CSIRO imported mildew-resistant varieties from France. These were integrated into a new grapevine breeding program, led by Ian Dry and Mark Thomas at the CSIRO Adelaide laboratory and focussed on breeding improved grapevine varieties and rootstocks for Australia, with not only improved yield and quality traits but also resistance to key grapevine pests and diseases.
Key achievements in grapevine breeding in Australia appear in the timeline below.
Mildew-resistant varieties
The initial target of the breeding program which commenced in the 1990’s was to breed new grapevine varieties with resistance to powdery mildew and downy mildew, the two most economically important diseases of grapevines. The program combined conventional crossing techniques with improved efficiencies through the use of marker-assisted selection technology.
Efforts over many years resulted in the first generation of mildew-resistant (Gen 1) winegrape cultivars, which contain one gene each for powdery and downy mildew resistance and are currently undergoing evaluation by industry partners under agreements with CSIRO. These are equivalent to the “PIWI’ varieties being grown throughout Europe. Several have commercial potential - performing well in industry trials and producing award-winning wines.
These varieties significantly reduce the need for fungicide application, lowering chemical use in the vineyard, reducing the cost of production and crop loss, lowering vineyard emissions and improving sustainability of the Australian wine sector.
Second generation vines, which have two genes each for downy and powdery mildew resistance, have also been bred by the team at CSIRO. Wine Australia is currently working with NSW DPIRD to evaluate over 500 mildew-resistant selections across two field sites. As for the Gen 1 varieties, the 20 ‘best’ reds and whites will be selected for replicated evaluation in subsequent projects, with the best-performing lines progressed to commercial release as ‘no spray’ vines.
In 2022, Treasure Wine Estates and CSIRO entered a long-term partnership to breed superior quality vines, using the varieties from the Wine Australia/CSIRO investment to introduce powdery and downy mildew resistance into their heritage Cabernet Sauvignon material. Read about it in the April 2025 media release.
Read a recent R&I news article on our breeding program with CSIRO and find links to past and current projects.
Rootstocks
Rootstocks are currently Australia’s only defence against the soil-borne insect phylloxera, which devastated the vineyards of Europe in the late 19th century. You can read more about phylloxera here. With many imported rootstocks unsuited to Australian conditions, CSIRO began in 1967 to tailor breeding and selection of rootstocks for Australia and from this program the three Merbein- (or M-) series of rootstocks were released in 2005.
A new program was initiated to widen the genetic pool and develop rootstocks with durable resistance to phylloxera and root knot nematodes. Funding from Wine Australia contributed to the evaluation of the rootstock material bred by CSIRO in this program, through a series of collaborative projects from the late 1990s. Extensive field trial evaluation determined that four high-performing CSIRO rootstocks (C113, C114, C20 and C7) had commercial potential as winegrape rootstocks. The C-series rootstocks were released commercially in 2019 Aussie rootstocks make their debut. They contain two resistance genes against grape phylloxera and one resistance gene for root knot nematode.
Both the M- and C-series rootstocks are protected by Plant Breeders Rights and are commercially available from a number of grapevine nurseries.
Current efforts are focussed on the development of second-generation durable resistant rootstocks suited to Australia conditions. The rootstocks harbour two genes each for resistance to the key soil pests phylloxera and root knot nematodes, and the breeding program is using marker assisted selection to introduce traits for resilience to a changing climate – including increased tolerance to drought, heat and salinity.
Wine Australia’s Grapevine Rootstock Selector helps growers to determine the rootstocks that will best suit their vineyard characteristics and variety selections. The online tool brings together the most recent knowledge from Australian and international research about the specific characteristics of different rootstocks. Your local grapevine nursery is another excellent source of advice.
Read about the current rootstock breeding program here:
Durable pest resistant grapevine rootstocks and germplasm evaluation
Read about some previous projects here:
- Rootstock genetics and improvement: new improved rootstocks with durable resistance to root-knot nematodes and phylloxera
- Rootstock genetics and improvement: tolerance to abiotic stress
- New rootstocks for Australian conditions
New breeding techniques
As well as the conventional breeding described above, Wine Australia is investing with CSIRO in development and application of a new breeding technology for winegrapes.
The technology is known as ‘gene editing’ and is a step change in plant breeding. It allows us to achieve the same outcomes as traditional breeding but with far greater speed and precision. Gene editing makes small, targeted changes to the genome of grapevines that are indistinguishable from natural mutations. These changes are not considered to be ‘genetic modifications’ in a regulatory sense, so the plants are not labelled as genetic modified organisms, nor do they have to be given a new variety name.
A gene editing pipeline for fast delivery of improved clones of elite winegrape cultivars has already been developed, and further gene targets have been identified based on priority traits determined in collaboration with the sector. These offer almost endless opportunities for improved varieties using new breeding techniques.
Read about the FSANZ definitions here: Media Statement on FSANZ approval of updated definitions for genetically modified food.
Read about current projects here:
- Enabling technologies for production of improved clones of existing premium winegrape varieties using ‘DNA-free’ gene-editing
- Premium winegrape varieties within improved fungal pathogen tolerance and quality traits through gene-editing
Improving confidence in the identify of Australia’s vines
The supply of true-to-type grapevine planting material to the wine sector is heavily reliant on correct variety identification. However, tracing of supply records to the point of origin is not always available or reliable, particularly for older accessions. Traditional vine identification, known as ampelography, involves a visual inspection of the grapevine - mainly the leaves - but has largely been superseded by DNA testing.
Wine Australia has been funding work at the AWRI for over a decade to allow clonal identification of vines based on DNA analysis. The method combines the latest next-generation genome sequencing technologies, high-performance computing and customised bioinformatics. The complete database contains over 800 sequences and will allow clonal typing of the majority of grapevine varieties and clones of economic importance in Australia, including Shiraz, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.
In 2024-25, the technique was applied to uniquely Australian heritage grapevine germplasm, focusing on ancestor vineyards (pre-1900). More than 300 individual vine samples were obtained from 53 sites across eight different GIs in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales and covering seven varieties. This will provide insights into the origins of Australia’s unique plantings and an indication of how they relate to current, commercially available planting material.
Read more about the project in an R&I News article Shedding light on Australia’s ancestral plantings
The AWRI recently launched a commercial service for clonal identification of grapevine material, following a successful beta-testing phase with samples of known or suspected identity from the propagation sector.
Find out more about the Grapevine clonal identification service.
Read about preceding projects here: