|
|
A large-scale study by the Yunnan Agricultural University in China has discovered the origins of wine and viticulture. According to the study, wild grapevines would have split into two main genetic lineages around 200,000 years ago, one in western Eurasia in what is now Portugal and Spain, and the other in what is now Israel and Turkey.
According to the study, farmers migrating from western Asia to the Iberian Peninsula would have brought table grapes with them, which they crossed with local wild vines along the way. The earliest of these crosses gave rise to the muscat grape in the region around Israel and Turkey. After the first grapes were domesticated about 11,000 years ago, they developed into the various varieties that can be found today in the Balkans, Italy, France and Spain.
However, he says it is virtually impossible to trace current grape varieties to specific areas or countries where their ancestors were originally cultivated. Since farmers crossed domesticated and wild table and wine grapes and backbred their offspring with their parents, it is difficult to build a family tree of grape varieties, especially since many less suitable varieties have died out, he said. In the study, a team of researchers from 16 countries analysed 2,503 domesticated table grapevines and 1,022 wild grapevines.
(al / source: drinksbusiness)