Editor’s choice: grapevine genetics are not just for researchers but also important to consumers

Roger M PinderInternational Journal of Wine Research, York, UKThe genetic profiling of Vitis vinifera species has long been a rather esoteric interest of researchers investigating the family relationships between different wine grapes, partly as a surer way of identification than the traditional study of vine leaves known as ampelography. Two recent publications, each examining more than 1000 wine grape varieties, have expanded the field not only for the academic researcher1 but also for the consumer.2 The first publication has already been discussed in an editorial in this journal,3 but the latter is a newly published tome of more than 1200 pages authored by two distinguished Masters of Wine from the UK, Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding, and by the academic researcher José Vouillamoz from the University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland, who is responsible for the Swiss Vitis Microsatellite Database (SVMD). The new book covers not only the genetics of wine grapes but also viticultural characteristics, places of cultivation, and the various wines and their taste. Some of these factors are more important to wine consumers than to researchers.