University of Minnesota Grapes Help Wine Industry Grow

In the past 30 years, the University of Minnesota has developed climate-enduring wine grapes that are now made into the four most widely produced wines in Minnesota.

A full crop of "cold hardy grapes" can withstand temperatures of up to 33 below zero.

Now, a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will allow researchers from the University and scientists from 11 other institutions to research more climate-resistant wine grapes, the acidity and taste within wine grapes and how best to market the wine to consumers.

Professor James Luby of the Department of Horticultural Sciences said the wine industry has been progressively growing in Minnesota for the last 15 years.

Read full article:  The Washington Examiner

Horticulture Professor Bio: Dr. Jim Luby

Dr. Jim Luby
Fruit Breeding
Professor
Department of Horticultural Science

Education:
Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 1982, Plant Breeding and Genetics
B.S. Purdue University, 1978, Agronomy-Crop Science
Research Interests

Dr. Luby teaches courses in viticulture, fruit production and plant breeding. The primary goal of his research is to develop, evaluate, and introduce fruit cultivars with horticultural, disease and pest resistance, and fruit quality characters desired by growers and consumers in Minnesota and surrounding areas.  The breeding programs concentrate on apple, grape, blueberry, and strawberry. An accompanying objective is to evaluate and/or develop novel alternative fruit and crops (e.g. blackcurrant and primocane-fruiting blackberry) with potential in Minnesota for commercial production or edible landscapes. In addition to developing new plant material, cultivated and wild germplasm is evaluated for variability for traits that potentially enhance the value of fruit crops for consumers and producers.  Research aims to determine the inheritance of these traits and, where appropriate, map important loci using molecular markers for use in marker assisted breeding. Recent or current examples include phenolic content and antioxidant activity in blueberry wild and cultivated blueberry, traits related to fruit texture in progenies of Honeycrisp apple, scab resistance in wild apple (Malus sieversii), photoperiod-induced acclimation in grape derived from wild Vitis riparia, and white pine blister rust resistance in blackcurrant.