Red blotch disease alters the chemical composition and taste of critical winemaking grapes
By: Luyi Cheng Northwestern University October 16th, 2020 Alison Crowe knows there’s a problem. Crowe is a winemaker in California’s Napa Valley. “If you drove through my vineyards right now, you’d see these cute little fuzzy leaves and tiny little baby grape clusters,” she said in April, when everything in the vineyards looked fine. But around July and August, for some vineyards, red blotches appeared on grapevines’ leaves. The blotches signal infection, caused by a virus that stunts...
