Abstract
Clonal selection has been developed in France since the beginning of the 1950s. The Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) was mandated to develop this methodology. In the early 1950s, the main goal was to renew the vineyard with healthy material (mostly safe from the grapevine fanleaf virus, GFLV). Thus, the Domaine de Vassal (INRA) in 1950 and later the Etablissement National Technique pour l’Amelioration de la Viticulture (ENTAV) in 1962 were set up in soils made of pure Mediterranean sand, free from the nematode vectors of GFLV. The Domaine de Vassal was dedicated to grapevine conservation and became one of the most important ampelographic repositories of the world, with about 7500 accessions (Anonymous 2003). ENTAV developed its selection work on cultivars registered in the official catalogue of grapevine varieties and clones cultivated in France: 228 of Vitis vinifera (ENTAV et al. 1995). About 4000 clones are conserved in ENTAV’s repository, including more than 3000 clones of wine grape varieties. INRA had also planted the first clonal repositories (e.g. ‘Cabernet-Sauvignon’ and ‘Merlot’ in Bordeaux); some of the most famous clones came out of these vineyards, such as ‘Merlot N 181’. From 1971 to 2002, 1065 clones of wine cultivars have been certified, representing about 160 varieties. During the past 30 years, selection criteria and winegrowers’ objectives have greatly changed. In parallel to this work, other French partners have come to understand the importance of grapevine genetic resources preservation. Regional collections are becoming more popular and have been planted for the past 15 years; they have become a priority today