Consider this the next time you toast a friend and wish them long life: The wine swishing around your glass may have come from grapevines with very long-lived lineages indeed. Researchers analyzing genetic material from ancient grape seeds turned up evidence of varieties almost unchanged for nearly 2,000 years. Another variety cultivated today is identical to grapevines propagated 900 years ago.
Vitis vinifera, the Eurasian grapevine, is one of the most economically important fruit crops in the world, with wine production its main use. Globally, humans guzzle more than 25 billion liters of the stuff each year. Yet much of the deep history of both V. vinifera and the wine it gives us remains unknown.
According to The Wine Institute, Italy leads the world in wine production with about a 16 percent share — but France is in second place, churning out just under 14 percent of the beverage’s global bottles. Even though wine plays a particular role in national identity for both countries, neither can lay claim to being its birthplace.
