|  According to Dr. Vouillamoz, there is evidence that grape was one of the early grown agricultural product in the world with the origins being in the Near East possibly Eastern Turkey, Georgia and Armenia as he talked about the evolution and origin of grape varieties and future changes of grape varieties during the next 35-40 years due to the climate change.
He collaborated with two Masters of Wine, Jancis Robinson and her employee Julia Harding to bring out the Bible of grapes, called Wine Grapes (www.winegrapes.org) last year. He was one of the speakers at the 5th edition of the annual World Wine Symposium held at Villa d’Este, Lake Como in Italy on November 7-10, 2013.
Despite several categories of grapes like Vitis Vinifera and Vitis Labrusca (most of the earlier grape varieties in the US and Canada), Vitis Liparia etc., he said over 99% of the grapes used in wine are in the Vitis Vinifera category which has 8,000-10,000 varieties, many of them still unknown. Only a small number of genetic possibilities have been explored outside the vitis vinifera, he added.
According to Dr. Vouillamoz, the first agro-areas that included grapes were in the belt in Near and Middle East - in Syria, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq etc., around River Tigris. South Eastern Turkey is the most likely origin for grape varieties. Georgia is another possibility in 7000 BC. Curiously, the names for wine also evolved around 8000 years ago in those regions.
 However there are limited numbers of founder varieties. For example, 156 grape varieties are connected to each other, as illustrated in their book Wine Grapes. ‘What is a grape variety’ is a simple question but has complicated answers because of their multiple natural crossings. For instance Savagnin grape has fathered grape varieties like Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Gruener Veltliner and Verdelho among many others. Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon have given birth to Cabernet Sauvignon.
 Pinot and Gouais Blanc, a little known white grape of France gave at least 16 known grape varieties of Burgundy including the better known varieties Chardonnay, Aligoté, Gamay and Melon. The offspring of Gouais Blanc found in Europe, as one can see from the chart, is truly fascinating with dozens of varieties like Riesling, Furmint being the offspring (plate 39).The discovery has been made through DNA profiling which is done by specialists like Dr. Vouillamoz, who number less than 100 in the world, according to him. They have dedicated themselves to do research the the evolution of grape varieties.
Some other fascinating disclosures came about the hitherto unknown facts about Pinot being the great grand parent of Syrah which is spicy because of the Dureza variety –a brother of Teroldego; all of them related to Pinot. Magdeleine Noir des Charentes and Cabernet Franc are the parents of Merlot. The fact that Cote Rotie uses about 20% Viognier which is a white grape with the red Syrah is explained by the fact that they belong to the same family.
Effect of Climate change
 What is already known to many but still not accepted universally is the havoc that the global warming is expected to cause and change the world of wine by 2050, as the speaker claimed, because of the temperature warming and cooling as observed during the last 2000 years, especially due to the warming in the recent years due to increased CO2 in the atmosphere during the last couple of decades.
By 2050, Bordeaux, Rhone, Tuscany, Napa, Chile will see different grape varieties growing, he said. According to predictions of another Study, Australia will lose 74% of the production as we see today, Caliifornia-70% and South Arica will lose 55%, according to the current research. This will force them to change the varieties and clones in their vineyards. Viticultural adaptations would need to be made. Later ripening varieties may be grown instead. Amidst murmurs and an audience in disbelief Dr. Vouillamoz said in a lighter vein that the iconic DRC in Burgundy might be forced to uproot Pinot Noir and replace it perhaps with Tannat! Different root-stocks might need to be used in future.
Keeping the climate change in mind and their expected effect on various vines, new crossings have been evolved by the scientists and are being experimented with. There is already a project undertaken in Bordeaux where 52 different varieties are being grown as an experiment.
Main crossings are Mueller Thurgau- a cross between Riesling and Madeleine Royale (45000 hA) and Alicante Bouschet- which is still mistaken in Spain for Garnacha but actually is a cross between Garnacha and Petit Bouschet and has 30,000 hA of surface area. An interesting possibility is a cross between Chardonnay and the Georgian grape Saperavi which has been creating waves of late.
GMO - Genetically Modified Organisms
Dr. Vouillamoz also mentioned a study suggesting GMO - Genetically Modified grapes since they can take care of many problems in the grapes like Powdery mildew, Downy mildew disease, leaf roll virus, Pierce’s disease and botrytis bunch rot, but conceded through his slides that it had not been accepted well generally and there had been serious and violent protests including vandalism wherever the experimentation was being carried out. He clarified that he was not a supporter of GMO
Other Seminars
The seminar was a part of the series of talks and workshops organised by Francois Mauss, Founder of Grand Jury Europeen, at the World Wine Symposium in Villa d’Este for the 5th year running. The seminars were kicked off with a talk on ‘Tomorrow’s World’ by Oliver Duha. The seminars conducted by Ernie Loosen (Germany), Advocate G Gallo (Italy) and A Forczek (Hungary) were quite Europe-centric but nevertheless provided an interesting historic background to the existing hereditary laws.
There was a workshop on New Devices for Wine Tracking. ‘The Challenges to come for the glass bottles’ was an interesting workshop by Michel Toussaint of Verallia Glass Company-one of the sponsors of the conference. He shared insights into the future shape, colour and design of some of the bottles expected to be produced to capture the attention of the retail buyer.
 Catherine Etchart of Sopexa gave an interesting account of ‘Appreciating the Chinese market’. It was a great insight into the various factors in marketing wines into China since she has spent many years living there. Unfortunately, she did not cover the latest happenings and stories of the market with the recent fall in demand, the austerity imposed by the Chinese government banning gifts and ostentatious spending and the latest trends. Perhaps it was beyond the purview of the seminar which touched in detail the demographics and various other aspects and nuances of the market that would be very helpful for someone trying to enter the Chinese Market. Wines of Tokaj are a sweet mystery that everyone likes to hear about and taste. Istvan Szepsy was able to unravel some of the mysteries followed by a tasting of his wines in the evening where producers traditionally offer their wines for tasting in one of the banquet rooms-Impero Room.
There are several articles posted from the earlier years that you may Search. For the previous article, click KRSMA Wines Shine at the World Wine Symposium
Subhash Arora
Tags: Dr. José Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes, World Wine Symposium, GMO, Genetically Modified grapes, World Wine Symposium, Villa d’Este |