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The AFP reports that a 600-year-old grape seed recovered from a medieval waste pit in northern France is genetically identical to grapes used today to make pinot noir wine. A team of researchers led by Ludovic Orlando of the French National Center for Scientific Research sequenced the genomes of 54 grape seeds dating from about 2300 B.C. to the medieval period. The oldest grapes in the study were found to have come from wild vines. The scientists determined that early farmers began using clonal propagation techniques as early as 625 to 500 B.C., when domesticated grapevines were grown in southern...

Monte Kronio rises 1,300 feet above the geothermally active landscape of southwestern Sicily. Hidden in its bowels is a labyrinthine system of caves, filled with hot sulfuric vapors. At lower levels, these caves average 99 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 percent humidity. Human sweat cannot evaporate and heat stroke can result in less than 20 minutes of exposure to these underground conditions. Nonetheless, people have been visiting the caves of Monte Kronio since as far back as 8,000 years ago. They’ve left behind vessels from the Copper Age (early sixth to early third millennium B.C.) as well as various sizes of...

Riesling was planted in Oregon vineyards as our industry developed at the end of the sixties. It was an easy grape to grow here, but the wines produced pleased the unsophisticated consumer and turned more worldly types away with their tendency to sweetness without the benefit of the acidity transmitted by rocky slopes as in Germany.A majority of Oregon winemakers soon abandoned riesling production and moved to Chardonnay plantings. However, the Oregon industry has now realized that northern Oregon growing conditions are ideal for the white "cousins" of our popular Pinot Noir...Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. These varietals as produced...