Calgary Herald
September 12, 1999
Cinda Chavich
Paul André Bosc kneels in the vineyard,
cradling the first shoots of a newly sprouted spring vine,
Canada's cold hardy "supervine".
It is, he says, the first transgenic
grape vine to be grown in the world, a wine grape with the
addition of a gene from a wild broccoli plant called arabidopsis
thaliana, a gene that should protect it from an additional
five degrees of killing frost.
"Cold
is our archilles heel," says Bosc who, with his brother
and parents own the impressive Château des Charmes vineyard
and winery in southern Ontario's Niagara Region. "The
window here is an extra 5°C - who wants to wait centuries?
By adding this gene now we are trying to combat oxidative
stress in a grape vine."
In typical Bosc style, he's unwilling
to entertain any questions about the popularity of such a
move, despite growing concerns among consumers around the
world about genetic manipulation of their food supply.
"The
upside to this is tremendous," he says.
"The rewards outnumber the risks. It's all a question of education."
When Paul Bosc Sr. planted these three rows of transgenic
vines two years ago, it was a media circus. Ontario Premier
Mike Harris was on hand to pat the dark Niagara soil around
the first tiny root stocks and senior bureaucrats, wine company
executives and scientists crowded in to be a part of the industry's
historic day.
Since then, mild winters have not
allowed the Bosc's to test their theory that the genetically
altered vines could save the weather-sensitive Canadian wine
industry tens of millions of dollars in potential losses.
But as the experimental plot is readied to see its second
cold season, Paul Bosc is hoping for a cold snap, one where
temperatures drop below the safe zone of -20ºC by at least
3-5ºC.
Situated, as they are, on the benchlands
of the Niagara Escarpment, Château des Charmes is in a unique
microclimate. The landform that hugs the south shore of Lake
Ontario and the prevailing winds give their vineyards up to
190 frost-free growing days and help to moderate the chilling
winters. Whether they will see temperatures dip low enough
to test their new vines' hardiness this season is unknown
but, as Paul-Andre notes, "three
winters of every ten are severe enough to cause injury to
the vines."
In 1978, Paul Bosc Sr., the French
born patriarch of the company, was the first Canadian winemaker
to plant a wholly vitus vinifera vineyard, proving that the
world's fine grapes (and subsequently fine wines) could succeed
in our cool climate. The family has always been innovative
in its approach to the wine business, experimenting with planting
densities and other innovations in the vineyard, and scientifically
plotting the nuances in the wine that change with technology
and "terroir", minute differences in climate, soil and vineyard
location.
Now Canadian scientists, from the
national Research Council and the University of Guelph, have
engineered a unique plant, a vine that could make growing
grapes in Canada even more profitable and the Bosc family
was the first to put it in the ground. The family is also
experimenting with other cold-tolerant vines, some that include
a gene from the wild riparia grape that once covered northern
Canadian slopes from Thunder Bay to Newfoundland.
"These
vines are very young, we may see a small crop next year,"
says Bosc, who says Canadian winemakers will run out of land
to grow grapes if they aren't successful in developing more
frost-tolerant varieties.
"This
could unleash a lot of potential planting in this country,"
he says.
It will be years before any of this
"transgenic" grape juice finds its way into bottles of Canadian
wine but we may know this winter if the new vine will be the
saviour that the scientists promise. If their theory holds,
there will doubtless be more rebels like Bosc, planting more
rows of genetically-altered grapes and worrying less about
what the coming winter holds.
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