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GRAPEGROWING Viticulturist Interview Markus Keller a challenging climate Creating a vineyard that can survive By Laurie Daniel M arkus Keller, professor of viticulture at Washington State University in Prosser, grew up on a farm outside Zurich, Switzerland, where his family grew winegrapes and other crops. In spite of this, he did not feel destined to go into a wine-related field. "For a long time, I wanted nothing to do with grapes," Keller says. Even when, during his college studies, he took an internship at the University of California, Davis, it wasn't to study grapegrowing. He wanted to learn English and studied cereal crops. 58 W in e s & V i ne s F E B R UARY 20 13 N ORTHW EST B.C. Seattle WASHINGTON Yakima Prosser OR WSU, Prosser Spokane ID Walla Walla But viticulture continued to beckon. Keller's master's degree in Switzerland involved studying spider mites in grape- vines. He says he started getting calls from the viticulture department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and the die was cast. "Once you're hooked, it's hard to let go," he says. Keller came to WSU in 2001, after working in Switzerland, Cornell University in New York state and Australia. He has conducted extensive research into the cold hardiness of grapevines, and he is currently studying such topics as irrigation, rootstock-scion interaction, berry shrivel and planting density. He also teaches regularly at the National University of Cuyo in