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''Vitis vinifera'' (common grape vine) is a species of ''Vitis'', native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran.〔Euro+Med Plantbase Project: (''Vitis vinifera'' )〕 There are currently between 5000 and 10,000 varieties of ''Vitis vinifera'' grapes though only a few are of commercial significance for wine and table grape production.〔Wine & Spirits Education Trust ''"Wine and Spirits: Understanding Wine Quality"'' pgs 2-5, Second Revised Edition (2012), London, ISBN 978-1-905819-15-7〕 It is a liana growing to tall, with flaky bark. The leaves are alternate, palmately lobed, long and broad. The fruit is a berry, known as a grape; in the wild species it is diameter and ripens dark purple to blackish with a pale wax bloom; in cultivated plants it is usually much larger, up to long, and can be green, red, or purple (black). The species typically occurs in humid forests and streamsides. The wild grape is often classified as ''V. vinifera'' subsp. ''sylvestris'' (in some classifications considered ''Vitis sylvestris''), with ''V. vinifera'' subsp. ''vinifera'' restricted to cultivated forms. Domesticated vines have hermaphrodite flowers, but subsp. ''sylvestris'' is dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants) and pollination is required for fruit to develop. The grape is eaten fresh, processed to make wine or juice, or dried to produce raisins. Cultivars of ''Vitis vinifera'' form the basis of the majority of wines produced around the world. All of the familiar wine varieties belong to ''Vitis vinifera'', which is cultivated on every continent except for Antarctica, and in all the major wine regions of the world. == History == Humans are known to have interacted with the ''Vitis vinifera'' in the Neolithic period. Wild grapes were harvested by foragers and early farmers. For thousands of years, the fruit has been harvested for both medicinal and nutritional value; its history is intimately entwined with the history of wine. Changes in pip shape (narrower in domesticated forms) and distribution point to domestication occurring about 3500–3000 BC, in southwest Asia, South Caucasus (Armenia and Georgia), or the Western Black Sea shore region (Romania and Bulgaria). The earliest evidence of domesticated grapes has been found at Gadachrili Gora, near the village of Imiri, Marneuli Municipality, in southeastern Republic of Georgia; carbon-dating points to the date of about 6000 BC.〔Nana Rusishvili, (''The grapevine Culture in Georgia on Basis of Palaeobotanical Data.'' ) “Mteny” Association, 2010〕〔Peter Boisseau, (''How wine-making spread through the ancient world: U of T archaeologist.'' ) June 17, 2015 – news.utoronto.ca〕 Grape pips dating back to the V-IVth millennia B.C. were also found in Shulaveri; others dating back to the IVth millennium B.C. were also found in Khizanaant Gora, all in the Republic of Georgia.〔Malkhaz Kharbedia, (THE HISTORY OF GEORGIAN WINE ) 01/20/2015〕 Cultivation of the domesticated grape spread to other parts of the Old World in pre-historic or early historic times. The first written accounts of grapes and wine can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian text from the third millennium BC. There are also numerous hieroglyphic references from ancient Egypt, according to which wine was reserved exclusively for priests, state functionaries and the pharaoh. The ancient Greeks introduced grape growing and wine making to Europe in the Minoan age. Hesiod in his Works and Days gives detailed descriptions of grape harvests and wine making techniques, and there are also many references in Homer. Greek colonists then introduced these practices in their colonies, especially in southern Italy (Magna Grecia), which was even known as Enotria due to its propitious climate. The Etruscans improved wine making techniques and developed an export trade even beyond the Mediterranean basin. The ancient Romans further developed the techniques learnt from the Etruscans, as shown by numerous works of literature containing information that is still valid today: ''De Agri Cultura'' (around 160 BC) by Cato the Elder, ''De re rustica'' by Marcus Terentius Varro, the ''Georgics'' by Virgil and ''De re rustica'' by Columella. During the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the long crisis of the Roman Empire generated instability in the countryside which led to a reduction of viticulture in general, which was mainly sustained only close to towns and cities and along coastlines. Between the 5th and 10th centuries, viticulture was sustained almost exclusively by the different religious orders in monasteries. The Benedictines and others extended the grape growing limit northwards and also planted new vineyards at higher altitudes than was customary before. Apart from ‘ecclesiastical’ viticulture, there also developed, especially in France, a ‘noble’ viticulture, practiced by the aristocracy as a symbol of prestige. Grape growing was a significant economic activity in the Middle east up to the 7th century, when the expansion of Islam caused it to decline. Between the Low Middle Ages and the Renaissance, viticulture began to flourish again. Demographic pressure, population concentration in towns and cities, and the increased spending power of artisans and merchants gave rise to increased investment in viticulture, which became economically feasible once more. Much was written during the Renaissance on grape growing and wine production, favouring a more scientific approach. This literature can be considered the origin of modern ampelography. Grapes followed European colonies around the world, coming to North America around the 17th century, and to Africa, South America and Australia. In North America it formed hybrids with native species from the ''Vitis'' genus; some of these were intentional hybrids created to combat ''phylloxera'', an insect pest which affected the European grapevine to a much greater extent than North American ones and in fact managed to devastate European wine production in a matter of years. Later, North American rootstocks became widely used to graft ''V. vinifera'' cultivars so as to withstand the presence of phylloxera. ''V. vinifera'' accounts for the majority of world wine production; all of the most familiar grape varieties used for wine production belong to ''V. vinifera''.〔Robinson, Jancis. ''Concise Wine Companion.'' 2001, Oxford University Press.〕 In Europe, ''Vitis vinifera'' is concentrated in the central and southern regions; in Asia, in the western regions such as Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Middle east, and in China; in Africa, along the northern Mediterranean coast and in South Africa; in North America, in California and also other areas like Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia, Ontario and Québec; in South America in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Brazil; and in Oceania in Australia and New Zealand. In the second half of the 20th century there was a shift in attitude in viticulture from traditional techniques to the scientific method based on fields such as microbiology, chemistry and ampelography. This change came about also due to changes in economic and cultural aspects and in the way of life and in the consumption habits of wide sectors of the population starting to demand quality products. ''Nature'' magazine published the genome sequence of ''V. vinifera''. This work was a collaboration between Italian researchers (Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Biologia Molecolare delle Piante, Istituto di Genomica Applicata) and French researchers (Genoscope and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique). ''Vitis vinifera'' is the fourth angiosperm species whose genome has been completely sequenced. The results of this analysis contribute significantly to understanding the evolution of plants over time and of the genes involved in the aromatic characteristics of wine. In March 2007, scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), working in the Cooperative Research Centre for Viticulture, reported that their "research suggests that extremely rare and independent mutations in two genes (and ''VvMYBA2'' of red grapes ) produced a single white grapevine that was the parent of almost all of 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." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vitis vinifera」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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