Roman-era seeds reveal ancestry of wines
London: A grape variety used in wine production in France today can be traced to an ancestral plant that was cultivated in the Roman Era, a study has found. With the help of an extensive genetic database of modern grapevines, researchers were able to test and compare 28 archaeological seeds from French sites dating back to the Iron Age, Roman era, and medieval period.
Utilising similar ancient DNA methods used in tracing human ancestors, researchers from the UK, Denmark, France, Spain, and Germany, drew genetic connections between seeds from different archaeological sites, as well as links to modern-day grape varieties. It has long been suspected that some grape varieties grown today, particularly well-known types like Pinot Noir, have an exact genetic match with plants grown 2,000 years ago or more, but until now there has been no way of genetically testing an uninterrupted genetic lineage of that age.
“From our sample of grape seeds we found 18 distinct genetic signatures, including one set of genetically identical seeds from two Roman sites separated by more than 600km, and dating back 2,000 years ago,” said Nathan Wales, from the University of York in the UK.
“These genetic links, which included a ‘sister’ relationship with varieties grown in the Alpine regions today, demonstrate winemakers’ proficiencies across history in managing their vineyards with modern techniques, such as asexual reproduction through taking plant cuttings,” said Wales.
One archaeological grape seed excavated from a medieval site in Orleans in central France was genetically identical to Savagnin Blanc.