A 600-year-old grape seed found in a medieval French hospital toilet is genetically identical to grapes used for pinot noir wine, scientists announced on Tuesday. The discovery indicates that people in France have been cultivating this popular grape variety since at least the 1400s, according to a new study.
The exact use of these ancient fruits remains uncertain, whether they were consumed as table grapes or fermented into wine during their time, said one of the study’s authors, Laurent Bouby. However, the research provides a connection between modern France and its historical wine production past.
Another co-author, Ludovic Orlando, noted that the Hundred Years’ War ended in the mid-1400s and Joan of Arc lived in the 15th century. The seed was discovered in a toilet at a hospital from this period in Valenciennes, northern France.
The study, published in Nature Communications, involved sequencing genomes of grape seeds ranging from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. It confirms that winegrowers used “clonal propagation” techniques for centuries, preserving cuttings of specific grape varieties.
Ancient texts suggested these practices existed but were difficult to prove without genetic evidence. The research found this technique was used across many regions since the Iron Age, around 625-500 BC. The oldest grapes analyzed came from wild vines in Nimes dating back to about 2,000 BC.
Domesticated vines appeared between 625 and 500 BC in France’s southern Var region, coinciding with Greek colonization of Marseille. DNA analysis showed long-distance exchanges of domesticated grape varieties from Spain, the Balkans, Caucasus, and Middle East during the Roman period, particularly in northern France.
The authors suggest future collaboration with historians to explore these wine-growing techniques further. Pinot noir, associated with Burgundy, is the world’s fourth most grown grape variety, according to the study.
Despite its historical significance, modern-day challenges such as higher temperatures and extreme weather conditions threaten France’s wine industry, leading to a smaller harvest in 2021 and over $2 billion in sales losses. This severely impacts France’s second-largest export sector.