DNA analysis of grape seeds from Roman and medieval times reveals that grape varieties have changed very little over the past two millennia.
The archaeological site of Tourbes (Hérault), where I st pips were discovered century close to the current pinot and savagnin grape varieties.
DNA. Viticulture is indeed one of the oldest professions in the world. This is proven by the study that made the cover of the latest issue of Nature Plants . An international team of researchers comprising geneticists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), archaeobotanists and researchers from the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in France has succeeded in comparing the DNA of grape seeds dating from the Iron Age, the Roman period and the Middle Ages taken from nine archaeological sites with current grape varieties. They thus revealed close genetic relationships, confirming that the techniques of reproduction of the most interesting vine varieties for the taste quality of wines date back at least 2000 years.
In the first century of our era, Pliny the Elder had described 91 grape varieties grown on the shores of the Mediterranean, but their Latin names did not allow them to be linked to current varieties. Genetics now allows it with unparalleled precision. “On the archaeological sites studied by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), we very frequently find grape seeds, but most of the time charred , says Laurent Bouby, CNRS researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences at the University of Montpellier. More rarely, we find them in wells or latrines where these grains have bathed in water for several hundred years, thus preserving fragments of their genetic heritage .” 28 ancestral pips could thus be analyzed.
Generations of winegrowers have kept the same varieties
Comparing these vestiges with the current vine could only be done in recent years. Indeed, advances in high-throughput sequencing were not enough. It was also necessary to build a genetic database of current varieties. 783 modern varieties are now sequenced, an important sample, even if the largest collection in the world, that of the Vassal estate near Sète (Hérault) has 4000 different grape varieties.
And the genetic comparisons — like forensic science methods — matched. The most spectacular is the perfect concordance between seeds dating from the 1100s collected from a medieval ecclesiastical site near Orléans and the current Savagnin Blanc, the grape variety grown for the production of the famous "yellow wine" of the Jura and which is also operated in Central Europe as the traminer. “This means that at least for the last 900 years, despite technical changes, climatic hazards etc. the winegrowers have preserved the qualities of this grape variety by cloning ”, continues Laurent Bouby. But seeds harvested this time from the 1st century Roman site in Tourbes (Hérault) show a direct lineage with the medieval Savagnin, saving a new millennium of history for the grape variety.
DNA. Viticulture is indeed one of the oldest professions in the world. This is proven by the study that made the cover of the latest issue of Nature Plants . An international team of researchers comprising geneticists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), archaeobotanists and researchers from the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in France has succeeded in comparing the DNA of grape seeds dating from the Iron Age, the Roman period and the Middle Ages taken from nine archaeological sites with current grape varieties. They thus revealed close genetic relationships, confirming that the techniques of reproduction of the most interesting vine varieties for the taste quality of wines date back at least 2000 years.
In the first century of our era, Pliny the Elder had described 91 grape varieties grown on the shores of the Mediterranean, but their Latin names did not allow them to be linked to current varieties. Genetics now allows it with unparalleled precision. “On the archaeological sites studied by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), we very frequently find grape seeds, but most of the time charred , says Laurent Bouby, CNRS researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences at the University of Montpellier. More rarely, we find them in wells or latrines where these grains have bathed in water for several hundred years, thus preserving fragments of their genetic heritage .” 28 ancestral pips could thus be analyzed.
Generations of winegrowers have kept the same varieties
Comparing these vestiges with the current vine could only be done in recent years. Indeed, advances in high-throughput sequencing were not enough. It was also necessary to build a genetic database of current varieties. 783 modern varieties are now sequenced, an important sample, even if the largest collection in the world, that of the Vassal estate near Sète (Hérault) has 4000 different grape varieties.
And the genetic comparisons — like forensic science methods — matched. The most spectacular is the perfect concordance between seeds dating from the 1100s collected from a medieval ecclesiastical site near Orléans and the current Savagnin Blanc, the grape variety grown for the production of the famous "yellow wine" of the Jura and which is also operated in Central Europe as the traminer. “This means that at least for the last 900 years, despite technical changes, climatic hazards etc. the winegrowers have preserved the qualities of this grape variety by cloning ”, continues Laurent Bouby. But seeds collected this time on the Roman site of the I st century in Tourbes (Hérault) show a direct lineage with the medieval Savagnin, bringing a new millennium of history to the grape variety.
Wine is 2,000 years of history around the same varieties of plants
Not all comparisons have yielded such an amazing result, but family closeness is close. “Closest are “first-degree relatives,” which includes several categories like parent-child and full siblings, but expands to cases of ancestral consanguinity such as sibling fertilization that results in to grandchildren who have identical parents and grandparents ”, explains Roberto Bacilieri, geneticist in the Genetic improvement and adaptation of Mediterranean plants (Agap) unit at INRA Montpellier. Thus, several pips from Roman times have close ties with Mondeuse Blanche, a Savoy grape variety itself very close to Syrah, the emblematic grape variety of Côtes-du-Rhône and Pinot Noir on which almost all Burgundy appellations. “Until now, the ancestors of today’s grape varieties were lost in the mists of time. Now we have a trace of it”, rejoices Roberto Bacilieri.
Another result which, for archaeologists, takes the place of scientific confirmation:from Roman times at least, men have selected and maintained the qualities of the best grape varieties by proceeding by cuttings or grafting. These varieties have been the subject of exchanges like the work done today by nurserymen. Two samples, one from Languedoc, the other from Alsace, 600 km apart and dating from the same Roman era thus have the same genetic heritage. Tools, remains of plants, traces of planting trenches already showed that layering or cuttings were practiced as early as the Iron Age. We now have genetic proof.
Only a small part of the genetic history of the vine has just been revealed. Expect more revelations. With funding from the National Research Agency (ANR), Laurent Bouby and Roberto Bacilieri will, with the support of the brand new molecular anthropology laboratory in Toulouse, proceed with the sequencing of several hundred additional seeds, some of which date from the Neolithic period, in order to refine the “genealogical tree” of the vine. “This will give modern viticulture a story and a culture to tell showing that there is a sustainability in viticulture , believes Roberto Bacilieri. The world changes but not the wine .”