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In a large-scale genetic analysis of grapevine varieties, scientists across 16 countries identified two separate domestication events that took place simultaneously ‘in Western Asia and the Caucasus’ around 11,000 years ago, says a new study in the Science journal. A map highlighting the key domestication centres, plus Cultivation Groups (CG) 1 and 2 and and their human dispersal routes. Image Credit: Science journal. Many ancient civilisations in Europe and Asia had wine-drinking tr ...

Researchers examining remnants of jars dating back to the kingdom of Judah found evidence that royal elites in Jerusalem may have been drinking wine ‘flavoured with vanilla’. It’s already known that wine has a long history in the region, and some studies suggest wines contained added spices or herbs. Yet researchers said they were surprised to find traces of vanillin in some of the ancient storage jars, which were excavated from debris caused by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE ...

The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C  in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...