Ep. 367 Sangiovese Lambrusco... | Curious Case of Lambrusco

Welcome to the book series by the Italian wine podcast. My name is Joy Livingston and for the next several weeks, I will be bringing you some choice narrated content from the book, Sandra Vasco, and other vine stories written by Mr. Science himself, Professor Atidio Shenza, and Serena Imacio, published by Positive Press. To get a copy of the book, the Kindle version is available on Amazon and hardcover copies are available from positive press dot net. If you like the content we share each week, consider donating to our show. Find details at Italian wine podcast dot com or on our social media channels. Sit back and get your geek on as we jump into the details, stories, and science on Italian wines and vines. The curious case of Lambrusco, the oldest work in the world. In July seventeen seventy four, the German botanist, Samuel Gottlieb, Melin, died in the wilderness of dagestan, a prisoner of Caucasian mountain people who had kidnapped him. It is to him we owe the addition of the wild divine into the Lanayan systematic framework of VITis vinifera. The reality, however, is much more complex than the one theorized in Melan Studies. Often wild vines and cultivated varietals seem to be at two chronological stages of the same evolutionary course. This observation highlights an underestimated aspect, the phenomenon of gene introgression. I e, the entry into cultivated varieties using the genetic heritage of wild vines through spontaneous cross breeding. To better understand this phenomenon, one could use what has happened in human populations as an interesting parallel. In nineteen ninety four, the Italian geneticist Luca Cavalli Sforza led a pioneering study on the variability of mitochondrial DNA a particular type of DNA inherited only by one's mother and on blood groups. In this study, allowed us to clarify the genetic composition of our species, to follow its evolution, to discover the meaning and importance of exchanges between different groups of individuals to recognize their migrations and classify populations according to their genetic affinity. Studies by cavalli Sforza have shown that particular segments of DNA especially some fragments of the y chromosome are associated with the spread of agriculture in Europe. In other words, it is as if every European male or female had inherited pieces of DNA from a paleolithic hunter gatherer or from a middle eastern neolithic farmer breeder. The males of the Janna culture play an important role in this process. These are a people from the eastern shores of the Black Sea who crossed paths with western women. This phenomenon can only be explained by admitting that cross breeding happened frequently between the descendants of the two groups and that these unions have continuously mixed and replenish the combinations of chromosomes of individuals. In addition, by studying the DNA of human populations, they have shown that certain genetic traits are more frequent in some populations than in others. And for this reason, they characterize the groups that possess them. It is thanks to the analysis of this information that we can trace the migratory paths of human groups. One of the most interesting aspects of the study is that there have never been any cases of offspring from one single group alone. The Basks long held as bastions of paleolithic and pre agricultural DNA also have large quantities of mitochondrial DNA as well as the y chromosome from farmers in the Middle East and the Caucasus. If we were to translate this into numbers, at the end of the day, it seems that the ratio between European and Middle Eastern DNA is four to one. The cavalli Sforza approach was then applied to the world of vines. In a consistent number of studies, vines from different European middle eastern and wild locations were analyzed. It was discovered that the ratio of four to one could also be confirmed for the majority of European vines. No wonder. The vines and wine have accompanied man in his journey since the beginning. Amphorey plants and men filled Greek ships sailing the Mediterranean docking in numerous ports. Leaving behind human cargo, liquids, and botanicals. They were always at the ready to colonize new lands and interbreed with the new populations, thus starting something new unique and original. The history of wine and the vine belongs to the seafaring peoples, the merchants by sea and along rivers and migrants developments in molecular biology, both in human and viticultural fields, have demonstrated the existence of a wide range of genetic potential with respect to wild vines in Europe. The so called forms of Viticulture for protection or anthropophilic Viticulture from the neolithic period have left deep traces Not only in the mode of cultivation, add our bustum, and in the design of the landscape, but also in the characteristics of the genome of the wild vines, which tend to show characteristics similar to those present in domesticated plants. In the face of natural genetic variability in the spontaneous populations, which is not always very high, the presence of thousands of vines in European Viticulture testifies to the essential contribution made by the peoples who domesticated them. The vines were guided by their culture, their myths and above all by their choices in daily life. Wild vines and cultivated vines. Still an uncertain frontier. It would be interesting to know if there is anyone out there who has never heard of the etruscans, Greeks and Romans, and their respective role in the birth and consolidation of Viticulture techniques. As well as their hand in the spread of wine throughout much of Europe and beyond. Less known at least to most people are that Pello liguri and even older people living in a corner of the Po valley. Who deserve the credit for having made a significant contribution to the local domestication of some wild vines and among other things to have coined the word labrusca. Labrusca means Bramblebush. This is what wild vines clinging to tree guardians would have looked like. It is a locally coined term that has survived in many neo Latin languages such as French, Catalan, romanian, and provencal. Even today, there are at least fourteen varieties that are still being cultivated that contain the word lambrosco in their own denomination. Examples of this term's presence can be found in vines or varietal families, especially in Tuscany and Campania. Abrostolo, Raverusto, Decapua, or Espigno. The question is whether the vines designated as Lambrusco derived from the local wild vines. If this were the case, the process of domestication of these varieties would have to have taken place in Italy in a rational way and independently from the spread of Viticulture. Which, as explained above, had its first propulsive center in the near east and then in Greece. To support this hypothesis, one could look to the archaeological finds of the ancient terra Maricolo settlements in that Padana area as evidence. Those from the bronze age that exists between the alto Montevano, the bassa veronese and the province of Karimona. The evidence is valuable because the continuous presence of man in various prehistoric phases has allowed us to reconstruct with relative precision the moments of transition from the use of the vine for the production of fruit to the fruit's exploitation for fermentation. These communities enjoyed particular prosperity thanks to the presence of fertile land and intense trade with other peoples. At that time, in fact, pile dwelling villages bordered the po and defined a root that stretched from the Alps through the Valica to the Adriatic and from there to the Eastern Mediterranean AGrian Creek Syria, Egypt, Asia, Minor, ensuring the inbound and outbound flow of goods of all kinds. Archaeological excavations in the Po valleys Terramare area on earth the remains of grape seeds as well as the seeds of other fruits such as wild cornelian. These are similar in shape to cherries. It is thanks to this research that we know that the first attempts to produce fermented beverages in the area date back to the iron age. It is likely that a few drops of the juice fermented after having remained in the harvesting bowl, hence a fantastic liquid was discovered. This was a liquid that both quenched thirst and created euphoria. But beyond this, nourish the one consuming it and deteriorated at a much lower rate than the basic picked fruit. Thus, in a process that links science with myth, the oldest biotechnology emerges. This discovery creates a juxtaposition. The wine is like the second birth of dionysus. After the death of the berry, there is a rebirth through the fermentation process creating wine. When we talk about the autochthiness nature of a vine, we do so in the broadest sense. We mean a variety that has long been adapted to the territory in which it is traditionally grown. The once terra maricole lands can probably boast for some of their vines, the use of this adjective in the strict sense of the word. The reason for this is because they selected and cultivated until they successfully domesticated the wild vines of the Po valley area. And these would have mostly been from the direct descendants of the vines with the denomination, Lambrusco. This hypothesis would have been further confirmed in the nineteenth century, a dark period for Viticulture, which saw the entry of vine disease into Northern Italy, as well as throughout Europe. Powder mildew appeared first. Spreading like a veil and mowing down the most sensitive varieties. The news from France that sulfur was an effective remedy came too late for these varieties, but the nineteenth century diseases brought varieties such as Lambrusco to the forefront. It had rained victorious over battle. It survived for two reasons. First, the form of training with a live guardian often in elm allowed the vine to grow higher and therefore it was safer from soil moisture. An ally of fungal diseases. Second, because many of these varieties have rustic characteristics and therefore, they have the capacity to adapt to stress in a way that is closer to wild plants than to cultivated plants. Five years after the appearance of the powdery mildew, the fight against this disease begins to show positive results and production goes back to normal. The selection made by the disease, however, meant that winemakers and legislators became interested in the Lambrusco vine, a vine that ensures there will be long lasting wine with good characteristics. A period begins in the cultivation areas in which the Lambrusco vine cover up to sixty to seventy percent of vineyards. Thank you for listening to this installment of San Jose, Lambrusco, and other vine stories. We hope you expanded your horizons and gave your brain cells an Italian wine workout. We'll see you again next Thursday and remember the kindle version of the book is available on Amazon and hardcover copies are available from positive press dot net. If you feel inspired to make a donation to our show, please visit us at italian wine podcast dot com. Find Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Gram. Our Twitter handle is at itawine Podcast.