Did you know?
- Vitis vinifera is the name of the common grape vine. There are now more than 10,000 varieties of winegrapes worldwide but only a few dozen are widely used for commercial production. Many of these varieties have been developed using grafting and other methods to produce hybrids.
- The sector depends on the correct identification of different grape varieties and clones of grapevines. Many scientific methods are used to do this including microbiology, chemistry and ampelography.
- Research conducted by scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) suggests that extremely rare and independent mutations in two genes of red grapes [VvMYBA1 and VvMYBA2] produced a single white grapevine that was the parent of almost all the world's white grape varieties. If only one gene had been mutated, most grapes would still be red and we would not have the more than 3000 white grape cultivars available today.