Grapevine biotechnology coming on to the scene

The ancientness of viticulture and the mythology of wine have given the grapevine a specially favorable and beneficial position among cultivated fruit plants.It is thought that cultivation of the grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) began during the Neolithic era (6000–5000 BC) in the region known as Transcaucasia corresponding to the eastern shores of the Black Sea. However archeological finds of grape seeds indicate that either the grapevine or at least its progenitor, Vitis sylvestris, was already distributed throughout much of Europe during the Atlantic and Sub-Boreal paleoclimatic peri-ods (7500–2500 years ago). Quite recently archeological grape seeds, dating according to radiocarbon method, between 4350 and 3950 years, were discovered in Spain (Walker 1985).