Mar 25th 2026|3 min read
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WINE IS A cornerstone of French identity. The country’s motley crus are prized by connoisseurs and exports of the stuff are a big contributor to the economy. Now, according to a study published on March 24th in Nature Communications, pride in winemaking can extend beyond the wine cellar and into the archaeological trench. DNA found in ancient grape pips has revealed that French winemakers have been cultivating and disseminating grapevines for over 2,500 years.
Winemaking did not originate in France. The earliest evidence of intentional wine fermentation dates to 6,000BC, in the form of residue from a pot found in Georgia. While written historical sources help to explain how the practice spread, they provide an incomplete and often biased picture. By combining archaeology with cutting-edge genetic analyses, Ludovic Orlando, a geneticist at the University of Toulouse, and his colleagues are starting to develop a more full-bodied history.
To reconstruct the history of French wine, Dr Orlando and his colleagues sequenced the complete genomes of 46 ancient grape pips recovered from archaeological sites across the country (as well as two from Ibiza, a historical trading post). In their analysis they also included the DNA from six previously sequenced French pips. The samples spanned roughly 4,000 years of history—from the Bronze Age through the Roman period and into the late Medieval period—giving the team unprecedented insight into the agricultural practices of France’s early vintners.
The researchers found that their earliest Bronze Age samples (dating from 2,300-2,000BC) are the ancestors of wild grapevines commonly found in France today. The earliest pips to have a DNA make-up characteristic of domesticated grapevines, however, do not appear until the Iron Age, around 625-500BC, at a site in Saint-Maximin near Aix-en-Provence. This genetic marker sets a latest possible date for the advent of French viticulture, potentially supporting earlier proposals the practice was introduced by the Greek settlers who founded the nearby city of Marseille in 600BC.
An Iron Age wine list would have boasted a range of domesticated grapevines, as well as mixtures with wild varieties. In pips found at coastal sites from this period, the researchers detected a rich blend of foreign influences, with genetic ancestries linked to the Levant, south-west Asia, the Balkans and Iberia. In the Roman-era pips (dated 50BC-500AD), this genetic diversity exploded. The study showed that viticultural practices pushed further inland and to the north during this time and new eastern influences appeared, such as lineages from the Caucasus, which persisted into the Medieval period.
These early winemakers had surprisingly refined techniques, the work of Dr Orlando and his colleagues reveals. Vegetative propagation—reproduction through the replanting or grafting of cuttings—yields genetically identical clones and is central to modern viticulture. The researchers discovered a variety of genetic twins from distinct archaeological sites and were surprised to find vegetative propagation being used as far back as the Iron Age. Cuttings would have been transported over hundreds of kilometres, with some clonal lineages preserved over a millennium. Once early winemakers cultivated a superior vine, says Dr Orlando, it might have been used as an early form of currency. Through careful cloning and vast exchange networks, the finest grape varieties survived and spread.
One particularly persistent pip was familiar. Dr Orlando and his colleagues found a sample from Valenciennes, dated to 1,400-1,500AD, to be an exact genetic replica of Pinot Noir, a red grape variety that is widely cultivated today. In the intervening centuries France has traded monarchs for emperors and emperors for republics. But when it comes to important matters, as the French might say, plus ça change. ■
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