Great Grape DNA

Filed in archive Italian Wines , Vineyards on January 30, 2007

Normally, when we think of DNA we think of TV shows like CSI. Or, in my case, I think of one of my soaps because those women never know who the father is - nuff said! But, DNA is used for other things besides finding the bad guy or the unknown father to your out-of-wedlock child. It is now being used to find the history of grapes.

From Italy's special pedigree: its grapes:

Castellani Wines, a family-owned Tuscan wine producer, purchased an antique vineyard in 1995 on the family's Poggio al Casone estate, Castellani said. He discovered many rare grape varieties on vines about 80 to 90 years old and, instead of taking a more economical path and replanting the entire vineyard, decided to cultivate 10 or 11 of these older varieties and embark on a research project.

"In Italy, we have 365 different varietals against the 50 the French have and the 30 that all the rest of the world have," said Castellani, who heads the agricultural and wine-making department of Castellani Wines. "To create the possibility of producing wine only in Italy and only in Tuscany and maybe only on my estate, this is important."

Since then, his family has been working with experts from the University of Pisa to trace the history of these grapes using DNA analysis and conducting interviews with the local small wine producers. Many of those producers had been using the grapes without knowing the names of the grape and sometimes they invented their own names, he said.

"We discovered that some of those were producing incredible wine," Castellani said. "There are grapes that give an incredible color and an outstanding spice flavor. And there is one which gives a wonderful peach flavor."