Qanopée, a new high-tech nursery for vineyards in the Northeast
by
David BESSENAY
THE
Winegrowers and politicians met on Friday, June 20 in Blancs-Coteaux (Marne) to inaugurate the Qanopée structure, around its president, Thiébault Huber from Burgundy.
This greenhouse, dedicated to the conservation and pre-multiplication of plant material, will be a veritable "sanitary safe".
It's not so often that three vineyards, in this case the Beaujolais Burgundy and Champagne (to which the Jura added as an associate member) collaborate on a project that is so structuring for the future of the vineyard.
What is it about? The creation of a4,500 m² "insect-proof"greenhouse.so the secondpre-multiplication site (intermediate stage between the IFV conservatory and nursery growers) not to be in open fieldafter the one in Bordeaux.
“ Vineyard decline has become a major issue in our regions, reducing the profitability of our vineyards and creating difficulties for nursery growers, with threats to mother vines and marketable plant material ,” explains François Labet, Chairman and Deputy of the BIVB " The open-field pre-multiplication model was reaching its limits," Qanopée will " secure the sanitary quality of grafts and rootstocks, and ensure self-sufficiency for operators in the Northeast ."
The first plants arrived in March and were planted in their pots of substrate. In total, more than twenty grape varieties, free from viruses and other diseases, will be propagated in this way. The first harvest is expected as early as next winter.
Qanopée will also serve as a conservatory of grape varieties and will welcome all innovations in this area: resistant grape varieties, grape varieties from the Cepinnov program… In short, a tool at the service of varietal innovation.
The project cost over €8 million, largely financed by the European Union and local authorities. The trade associations only had to contribute a small portion (approximately 10% of the total cost).