Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ONE
Ampelology
the art and science of grape variety identification
genetic studies, but such a broad use is a mis-
take. That fateful day now decades ago, I made
that mistake, and Berrouet let me know it. I
haven't stopped learning from the man since.
The fact is that modern grape scientists can
count on so much more than their powers of
observation in their search to identify grape
varieties—and it's a good thing too, as we shall
see. Modern advances in cellular and molecular
biology have made it easier today to correctly
identify grape varieties. Whereas grape cultivar
characterization had been traditionally carried
out using morphological and phenological
observations, nowadays DNA analysis tech-
niques based on molecular markers, when cor-
rectly performed, are able to provide objective
information on the identity of a species. These
techniques can also help clarify the origins of
grapevine cultivars. Since grape identifi cation
no longer involves just the art of observation
and graphic reproduction, but many other
branches of science too, the correct name for
grapevine science ought to be
ampelology,
not
ampelography.
Others besides Berrouet agree,
yet wine writers and university experts have
AMPELOLOGY, NOT AMPELOGRAPHY
The fi rst time I met one of the world's most
famous wine experts, now many years ago, it
took me all of two minutes to say something
wrong. Jean-Claude Berrouet, for over forty
years the head of winemaking at J. P. Moueix
(the venerable French
négociant
fi rm that pro-
duces and sells legendary wines such as Petrus,
Trotanoy, Magdelaine, and California's Domi-
nus), stopped in mid-conversation, smiled, and
pointed out I had used an incorrect term. That
pernicious term was ampelography.
Ampelography is the science of vine descrip-
tion and classifi cation based on observation and
pictorial illustration of grapevines—and strictly
speaking, nothing more. The term derives
from the Greek
ampelos
(grape) and
grapho
(write) and literally means “vine description” or
“writing about grapes.” Historically, vine varie-
ties and grapes have always been described and
carefully reported via beautiful drawings, and
later, photographs. Today, everyone uses the
term ampelography to refer to the study of
grape varieties in the broadest sense, including
