Roman wine from Chianti was probably not red

[guy]

 

Here is an interesting article about DNA evidence from grape seeds recovered from wells at Cetamura del Chianti, the site of the famous “red” Chianti (pictured above).

Archaeogenetic evidence from ancient Tuscany, however, shows that the dominant grape cultivated by the Etruscans and Romans in Chianti was a white grape variety. Since grape skin color is the key determinant of wine color, those vineyards would have yielded white wines.

“Between 300 BCE and 300 CE, local residents dropped grape pips into deep wells, where oxygen-poor mud preserved them.”

The article describes how archaeologists sequenced DNA from 2,000-year-old grape seeds found in wells at Cetamura del Chianti in Tuscany, providing the most detailed genetic look at ancient grapevines from a single site. They analyzed 80 seeds and found that most came from a single, identical variety that was grown continuously from the Etruscans to the Romans, showing a strong consistency in local grape growing. The genetic markers revealed that this main clone produced white grapes, which is surprising since Chianti is now famous for its red Sangiovese wines. After the Romans arrived, new grape varieties appeared, indicating that carefully chosen cultivated types were brought in from across the empire. Some seeds also showed signs of wild grapes.

One of the most interesting findings is a lineage genetically close to a rare Hungarian grape and to the famous Maribor vine in Slovenia—the world's oldest living fruiting grapevine. This points to long‑distance connections in ancient viticulture and hints at the broader networks through which grape varieties moved across the Roman world.

Cetamura’s grape seeds are important because they provide a rare and well-preserved glimpse into how viticulture developed in central Tuscany, spanning from the Etruscan period to Roman rule. 

The history of grape seeds found at Cetamura del Chianti is told through well-preserved layers in two ritual wells. These layers date back to the Etruscan period (3rd–2nd century BCE), then through the Roman Republican and Imperial times, and even into the Late Antique era (4th–6th centuries CE). It's interesting to note that the later Roman grapes weren’t examined because of the biological changes they underwent.

This uninterrupted sequence shows that viticulture in the Chianti Hills was already established before Roman influence, intensified during Roman agricultural expansion with greater varietal diversity, and persisted even after the decline of Roman authority, making Cetamura one of the rare sites in Italy where the evolution of grape cultivation can be traced continuously for nearly a millennium.

The DNA also shows no direct match with modern Sangiovese but does share alleles with Tuscan heritage varieties such as Colorino, Canaiolo Nero, and Malvasia

The real surprise is the grapes' color: the dominant lineage carried alleles for white berries rather than red. In other words, the people living in the Chianti hills two thousand years ago were cultivating a white‑grape variety (and drank white wine), despite the region’s modern association with red Sangiovese wines.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/ancient-dna-from-tuscan-wells-reveal-origins-of-modern-wine-413573

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440326001354?via%3Dihub

Edited 37 minutes ago by guy