ABSTRACT
The cultivated grape, Vitis vinifera L., is closely related to an aggregate of the wild and feral vine forms which are distributed in the Mediterranean area and northwards into areas of relatively mild climate in central Europe and Western Asia (see Map 16.1). These wild and feral forms belong to the subspecies (ssp.) sylvestris (C.C.Gmelin) Berger within Vitis vinifera, and are considered to be the stock from which the cultivated grape vine was derived.
