Vitis vinifera in the Iberian Peninsula: A review

Abstract

The origin of the Eurasian grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. and the different steps in the development of viticulture from the wild grapevine to the modern varietal situation in the Iberian Peninsula are reviewed here. The ancestors of Vitis vinifera subs. sylvestris, the only representative of the Vitis genus in natural Eurasian and North African ecosystems, appeared in the late Miocene. In the Iberian Peninsula, human action has significantly reduced the habitat of this species, whose oldest palaeobotanical remains go back to the late Pleistocene. The introduction of viticulture in Iberia is connected with the relationships between the indigenous population and the trading colonies founded by Phoenicians and Greeks. In this way, there is evidence of wine production and consumption, even as a ritual and prestige item, going back to the third millennium BP. Chloroplast genome studies carried out in wild and cultivated plants indicate that a secondary domestication process occurred in the Iberian Peninsula and this is reflected in the “A” chlorotype, which contrasts with the predominance of the “B” and “C” chlorotypes in wild and domesticated vines in the Transcaucasian region, where domesticated grapes at sites of the Shulaveri Culture (Georgia) are evidence of early viticulture around 8000 BP.