Colour of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) accessions influenced by the length of cold storage •

Colour is one of the most important phenotypic characters of the table grape cultivars, which has high importance in the consumer's preference. This morphological trait is variable and not consistently uniform within a cultivar or even a bunch. Between harvest and consumption fruits are stored for several weeks which time is influencing the colour of the berry. In this study 10 grapevine accessions (Agaphante, KM98, Korai piros veltelini, Korona, Pinot gris, Pozsonyi, Ros de Minis, Tramini piros, T9, Zenit) were collected from the germplasm collection of the Research Institute for Viticulture and Oenology of the National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre of Kecskemét. The samples were investigated by ColorLite Sph850 spectrophotometer. The colour of 30 berries per accessions were measured in 3 replicates per berry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the colour and the effect of cold storage. L✻, a✻, b✻ values of each accessions were evaluated after the sampling and until a visible reduction in the quality of the grapes, at most 4 weeks with 1-week intervals from the harvest. Results showed that there is a significant difference among the cultivars in the L∗, a∗, b∗ values. The length of cold storage also has a significant effect on the colour of the accessions as the values are changing in some cases of the 1-week storage period.