1990s onwards · Worldwide
DNA analysis rewrites grape genealogy
Genetic testing overturned centuries of assumptions about where grape varieties came from.
What happened
From the mid-1990s, DNA profiling began establishing parentage relationships that ampelography — identification by leaf and bunch shape — could not.
Cabernet Sauvignon was shown to be a natural crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, which nobody had proposed.
Syrah was shown to descend from two obscure south-east French varieties, ending long-standing romantic claims of a Persian or Sicilian origin.
Zinfandel, Primitivo and the Croatian Tribidrag were established as one variety, resolving a decades-old argument.
Chardonnay, Gamay, Aligoté and others were shown to share a common Pinot × Gouais Blanc parentage — meaning a grape now regarded as worthless produced several of the world's most important varieties.
How firmly this is dated
Documented. Recorded contemporaneously. The date is not in question.
Published genetic analyses, principally from UC Davis and collaborators, subsequently consolidated in reference works and in the VIVC database.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) — Julius Kühn-Institut, Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof
- Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties — Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz (Allen Lane, 2012)
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
Along the timeline
Before · 1994
Chile discovers its Merlot is Carménère
A variety thought lost after phylloxera turned out to have been growing in Chile for over a century, mislabelled.
After · 1990s onwards
The orange wine revival
Producers in north-east Italy and Slovenia revived extended skin-contact white winemaking, drawing on Georgian practice.