Recipes

Interesting article from Cooking echo, on Grapes DNA.
by Joan Macdiarmid

Hi, folks!

I found an interesting article on wine stuff in a trade journal (Chemical & Engineering New, March 19, 2001) and thought some here would find it interesting, so transcribed it with just a few edits...

Though wine-making is an ancient art, modern science unquestionably has impressed itself on the field, from the control of fermentation to understanding flavor. In recent years, for example, analytical chemists have isolated sulfur compounds that impart crucial nuances to wine, including hints of grapefruit, coffee, or flavors like lava.

But perhaps no segment of high technology has dovetailed so perfectly with the culture of wine as has genetics. Just as modern genetic analysis helps determine the true parentage of a human child, it also can determine what grapes produced some of the world's most noble varieties.

In just the past few years, Carole Meredith, genetics Professor in the department of viticulture and enology at UC/Davis, has unraveled mysteries about wine grape origins that have perplaxed oenophiles for centuries. Her work is of more than intellectual interest: It has provided valuable historical insights and has the potential to significantly affect the status of different wines and, therefore, their commerce.

Grapes are uncommonly well suited to genetic analysis, Meredith explained, because they're propagated vegetatively - that is, they are not grown from seeds, but are reproduced via cuttings or from buds. Thus, all domesticated grapes are clones, some stemming from an original vine hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago. And so it becomes possible to pinpoint with great accuracy how grape varieties are related to each other. "If grapes were seed- propagated plants, then we wouldn't have in front of us the genotype that existed centuries ago" Meredith said.

This is extremely significant in an industry where pedigree really counts. The parents of other vegetatively propagated crops such as olives, dates, or figs could probably be analyzed in a similar fashion, but their heritage is not nearly as vital, Meredith said. "There's nothing like grapes in terms of having varieties whose identities are really economically important."

Like all domestic crops, wine grapevines were originally wild plants. Early farmers gradually learned to propagate them, likely by simply putting sticks in the ground. In nature, of course, grape vines do cross-pollinate, producing unique offspring each time. And it's to be expected that occasionally a domesticated grape would cross with a wild grape or that two domesticated grapes might cross. Grape breeders didn't learn how to perform controlled crosses until the mid-1800s.

A number of years ago, Meredith and her then-graduate student John E. Bowers began assembling DNA profiles of major wine grapes to determine in the grapes imported to California in the 1800s correctly retained the names of the European varieties they stemmed from. The team then realized the data could also lend insight into grape variety relationships.

The genetic analysis of grapes is performed exactly as it is with humans. Meredith and her colleagues compare so-called simple sequence repeat (SSR) DNA markers, which are regions of a genome that consist of a repeating series of two or three DNA bases, flanked by unique sequences. The repeating sequences, which vary in number from variety to variety, are known as alleles. Since a grape receives a set of alleles from each parent, the parental identities can be determined by looking at shared alleles.

They first turned to that venerable red wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon, whose origin had invited considerable speculation over the years. It had been suggested that, because the word "sauvignon" stems from an old French word meaning "wild", perhaps Cabernet Sauvignon was an original wild vine. Or perhaps ancient Romans had brought the vine from Albania. Or perhaps it came from Spain. As it turned out, none of those possibilities was correct. After analyzing the alleles of 45 SSR markers in grape DNA, Meredith and Bowers rocked the oenophilic world in 1997 by reporting that Cabernet Sauvignon was actually the offspring of two well-known grapes, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. It was the first unambiguous identification of the origin of a classic wine grape.

People had suspected that Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon were related because the two have a similar appearance. "But the feeling was Cabernet Franc was derived from Cabernet Sauvignon in some way, not the other way around," Meredith said.

And the obvious coincidence in the names of the parents with that of their child is just that - a coincidence, Meredith said. Because of their physical similarities, it s nor surprising that Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon might share a name. And the "sauvignon," meaning wild, doesn t imply any particular relationship.

The first mention of Cabernet Sauvignon turns up in the late 1600s in Bordeaux, France, so that's likely when and where it first originated.

After the Cabernet sensation, Meredith and her group moved on to other major grape varieties. Their next project: Petite Sirah, a California variety with a murky background. Though it must have come from Europe at some point, the name has been used there for several different grape varieties. Europe is home to the well-known Sirah grape, but whether Petite Sirah was related or not could only be speculated upon.

It had been postulated that Petite Sirah might actually be the little-known French variety Durif, or possibly Peloursin, also from France. So Meredith's group collected samples from California vineyards and French stock, and found - lo and behold - that almost all of California s Petite Sirah is, in fact, Durif.

And in addition, the group found that the parents of Durif were none other than Peloursin and the true Sirah. The lineage is particularly important because Petite Sirah has sometimes been denigrated as unworthy of noble status. The now-known fact that Sirah is its father may imbue Petite Sirah with a little more status, Meredith said.

With burgeoning databases, the group decided to do full-scale "prospecting for parents." They obtained 300 samples, including some from vines that are rare and are no longer grown, from the French National Variety Collection managed by Jean-Michel Boursiquot, a viticulture scientist with U.F.R. Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique in Montpellier, France.

In this big sweep, they found parents for 26 grape varieties. Not only that, but 16 of those varieties, which included Gamay Noir and the ubiquitous Chardonnay, have the same parents - that is, they were produced by different cross-pollinations between the same two varieties.

The parents are the much-admired Pinot Noir and, even more interestingly, an almost unheard of and once quite lowly variety known as Gouais Blanc. Centuries ago, while the ruling class grew premium grape varieties on choice land, serfs grew Gouais on the flatland dregs afforded to them. Considered a "despicable, ordinary grape," Gouais was named for an old French term of derision. The local rulers even banned it - twice.

Gouais is not originally from France. Rather it is an Eastern European grape, possibly brought to France by Emperor Probus in the 3rd century A.D., from what is now Croatia.

Currently, Meredith and colleagues are trying to determine the origins of Zinfandel, another variety popular in California. One possibility, proposed about 30 years ago, is that Zinfandel is from Italy, since an Italian variety known as Primativo looks and tastes just like Zinfandel. DNA tests showed that the two are indeed one and the same, but because Italian historical records mark the sudden, recent arrival of Primativo in the late 1700s or so, Zinfandel must have come from somewhere else, Meredith said.

A clue can be found in Italy's geography: Across the Adriatic Sea from the southern heel of the country lies the Dalmatian coast. There, an important grape variety known as Plavac Mali bears strong similarities to Zinfandel. As it turns out, Zinfandel is not Plavac Mali, but it is a close relative - perhaps Plavac Mali's parent.

So far, the group hasn't found Zinfandel itself in Croatia, but they have found so many of its genetic cousins and sisters that they believe that's where the grape originated. "It may not still exist there, because grape varieties get lost for many different reasons," Meredith said. "But when you find all the relatives there, it's hard to avoid concluding that it also came from there."

Joan MacDiarmid in Amherst, NY P.S. There was another interesting bit on cheese chemistry I hope to get up to posting soon, too!

... "If we KNEW what we were doing, it wouldn't be RESEARCH!"
* Origin: =-DING!-= Dinner's Ready! (1:142/736)

By: DAVE DRUM

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       Title: Bannock
  Categories: Canadian, Breads
  Servings:  6

       1 c  Whole wheat flour
     1/2 c  All purpose flour
     1/2 c  Rolled oats
       2 tb Sugar, granulated
       2 ts Baking powder
     1/2 ts -Salt
       2 tb Butter, melted
     1/3 c  Raisins; optional
     3/4 c  -Water; approx,

"Bannock, a simple type of scone was cooked in pioneer days over open fires. Variations in flours and the additional of dried or fresh fruit make this bread the simple choice of Canadian campers even today. Oven baking has become an acceptable alternative to the cast iron frypan. McKelvie's restaurant in Halifax serves an oatmeal version similar to this one. For plain bannock, omit rolled oats and increase the all purpose flour to 1 cup....

One of the earliest quick breads, bannock was as simple as flour, salt, a bit of fat (often bacon grease) and water. In gold rush days, dough was mixed right in the prospector's flour bag and cooked in a frypan over an open fire.

Indians wrapped a similar dough around sticks driven into the ground beside their camp fire, baking it along with freshly caught fish. Today's native Fried Bread is like bannock and cooked in a skillet.

Newfoundlander's Damper Dogs are small rounds of dough cooked on the stove's dampers while Toutons are similar bits of dough deep fried. At a promotional luncheon for the 1992 Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Eskimo Doughnuts, deep fried rings of bannock dough, were served. It is said that Inuit children prefer these "doughnuts" to sweet cookies.

Red River settlers from Scotland made a frugal bannock with lots of flour, little sugar and drippings or lard. Now this same bread plays a prominent part in Winnipeg's own Folklorama Festival. At Expo '86 in Vancouver, buffalo on bannock buns was a popular item at the North West Territories ' restaurant. In many regions of Canada, whole wheat flour or wheat germ replaces part of the flour and cranberries or blueberries are sometimes added. A Saskatchewan firm markets a bannock mix, and recipe books from coast to coast upgrade bannock with butter, oatmeal, raisins, cornmeal and dried fruit."

Stir together flours, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add melted butter, raisins (if using) and water, adding more water if needed to make sticky dough. With floured hands, pat into greased pie plate. Bake in 400F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until browned and tester comes out clean. Cut into wedges. SERVES:6

VARIATIONS: In place of raisins add chopped dried apricots or fresh berries.(Blueberries are terrific if one is camping in northern Ontario in August.)

SOURCE: "The First Decade" chapter in A Century of Canadian Home Cooking

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