Changins, the federal viticultural research station in western switzerland near Nyon on Lake Geneva, is principally concerned with improving plant material, including clonal selection; matching vine variety to specific terroir in both French-speaking Switzerland and Italian-speaking Switzerland; and developing viticultural techniques which reduce costs, improve wine quality, and minimize chemical inputs (see organic viticulture). Areas of oenological research have included techniques for must settling of white wines, red wine maceration, yeasts, malolactic conversion, filtration, and enrichment. The station has developed a number of crosses such as gamaret and garanoir, and more recently Divico, showing good resistance to both mildews and to botrytis bunch rot.
