Ep. 362 Sangiovese Lambrusco... | Introduction

Welcome to this brand new 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 Imasio, 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. Our topic this week is the seasons of wine. So sit back and get your geek on as we jump into the details. Stories, and science of Italian wines and vines. The seasons of wine. About thirteen thousand years ago with the sea level ninety meters lower than it is today. The Persian Gulf was land based. The Tigers and the Euphrates flowed in deep valleys towards the gulf of Oman. It was in that period that indirectly the history of Viticulture began. The last ice age had come to an end and the warming of the climate was raising sea levels. Water covered the Persian Gulf causing a massive accumulation in the mesopotamian plane, transforming it into an inhospitable swamp. The Black Sea which during the cold period was a fresh water lake was progressively flooded by the waters from the AGN and began to rise. The water swallowed and eroded meters of coastline so that many people were forced to abandon their homes thus giving credence to the legend of the universal flood. The epic of Gilgames, King of Urog, is the first Cosmogonic narrative that traces man's journey in search of happiness and immortality. It dates back to the third millennium BCE and speaks of a seven day flood similar to the Genesis narrative in the Bible and the rescue of humanity on Mount Arab. Wine and the vineyard are at the center of both narratives. Noah when he gets out of the ark offers the juice of the vine, the red and white wine, and the beer so that they can be drunk like the water of a spring. In the sumerian epic cycle, the king sets out in search of eternal life. And during his journey, he meets Siduri, the woman in the vineyard, the one who makes wine. This indicates the link between agriculture and Viticulture, as well as the symbolic link between wine and sexuality. Behind the storylines in these legends remains the grains of historical reality. The people who lived at the base of the Zagros mountains to whom the first proto domestication of wild vines and the first testimonies of winemaking are attributed moved to the foothills of the little caucasus close to Mount Arab rat because of the flooding of their lands. Here, they developed a new Viticulture based on the vines they brought with them. Which became crossed with the wild Caucasian vines. Therefore, the geological disaster helped the spread of agriculture in Central and Southern Europe where a new and distinct Viticulture appeared almost at the same time as the floods. Let's move forward a few millennia. In the middle ages, an event occurs that upsets the cycle of the seasons and triggers violent meteorological catastrophes unknown thus far. Europe had just come out of the hot phase called optimum climatico Mediaveale which brought the vine all the way up to Scotland and to the Alpine valleys beyond heights of one thousand two hundred meters. This period is what is known as the small glaciation, which determined that between the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, average temperatures drastically dropped representing a tastrophe for agriculture causing a reduction in the production of cereals, fodder, fruit, and grapes. The annual production of wine was an excellent indication of the chronological succession of climate events due to the habit especially on the part of the monastic orders of marking the date of the beginning of the harvest, the current prices and the quality of the grapes. The low winter temperatures caused the death of the vines and adaptation strategies were adopted to counteract the decrease in production and quality. The first interventions usually occurred in the form of training, which sought to place the clusters as close to the ground as possible. As we saw, for example, in Germany and Azas in the middle ages so that it could take advantage of the heat. And the later ripening varieties were replaced by varieties that ripened earlier with white berries. These two examples chosen from many tell us that one cannot separate the history of Viticulture from climate change. Changes in temperatures and seasons and the repercussions in the environmental context direct the selective choices of man. On the one hand, favoring the cultivation of some vines over others. On the other hand, leading to a selection of varieties towards clones that can better withstand the changes taking place. The role of the consumer has not been negligible and has induced the winemaker to produce wines that better interpret the changed environmental conditions. That's how Champagne was born. Man has always held the climactic conditions in great consideration and has then acted accordingly choosing the most suitable plants and varieties for ever changing needs, like the ones that have been emerging and respond to our immediate future. Present, past, and future, genetic evolution. Neo thick man was the first to modify the genetic structure of plant populations. First, by selecting only the most attractive specimens from the environment and then by learning how to cross the previously selected plants in order to transfer aspects that were particularly pleasing to him. From a plant that carried them to one that lacked them, It is the embryonic stage of genetic improvement. Genetics as a scientific discipline in comparison to neolithic genetic improvement methods is relatively recent. It was Mendel and Darwin who intuited the origin of the traits and the modes of hereditary transmission in the nineteenth century. But the application of their discoveries as so often happens took place much later in this case between the two World Wars. A phase of full understanding came about when the discoveries of Mendel and Darwin were first applied. These scientific achievements were advantageous in the salvation of European Viticulture from Filoxera. The creation of cross rootstocks and disease resistant varieties were the basis of the first revolution from the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. This generated real upheaval in the production sector such as an agriculture that was strongly anchored in traditionalism and the principles of creationism. Watson and crick's discovery of the molecular structure of DNA in nineteen fifty three gave rise to a stand of increasingly precise and targeted research. From this period onward, It is clear that genetics was a discipline that had remained a subject of discussion in specialist arenas for decades. It is only in recent years that it became a subject of study in schools of all levels. This explains the persistence of distrust towards them and the ease with which statements and misconceptions circulate freely on the web and printed paper. However, genetic select offers great opportunities for the development and improvement of Viticulture, which today faces two major challenges. First, the fight against disease also in light of the growing demand for healthy and sustainable products. Historically Viticulture had been the largest consumer of plant protection products. Second, climate change, which imposes new constraints on cultivation. History teaches us that realistically these battles have always existed, but what about the solutions? The search for answers, of course, has occurred since these problems arose, and there have been numerous alternative solutions. In the chapter on phylloxera, we will see how the scenario dramatically came about with both chemical and physical solutions always providing to be unsatisfactory as well as not definitive. The strategy they used to employ a solution is as old as the history of agriculture and it is called cross breeding. The philosophy inherent in creating new plants through cross breeding involves a reassortment, a redistribution of the genetic resources of a species or a population, and is based on the theory that the solution is written in the genetic ancestry of the species itself. Cross breeding therefore is not only as we will tell you in this book the way to obtain new varieties of vines starting from the most interesting ones already in existence, but also the solution to a series of problems linked to the growing demand for healthy and sustainable grapes in a period of strong climatic instability. Thank you for listening to the first installment from the book SandroVese, 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 hard cover copies are available from positivecrest dot net. 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