Multidisciplinary Study of Traditional Grape Cultivars from Kartli Province of Georgia (the Caucasus Region) and Activities for Their Preservation

Kartli province is a traditional Georgian viticultural region having a rich heredity of local autochthonous grape cultivars-according to the 'Ampelography of Georgia' (1960) their number is 68. Thirty-five cultivars from this germplasm, maintained in two sites of Skra collection, were involved in our research. The selected cultivars were characterized by modern methods of ampelography with photographic records, chemical analyses and molecular markers. Phenological observations of plant development were also done. Preservation activities for these genotypes, especially from the "Koskhkebi" site, are urgent due to their quite old age (the repository was established in 1973). For this reason 25 rare cultivars were propagated for planting in a new field collection and 30 genotypes were included in AEGIS European Catalogue for preservation in other European collections too.