ABSTRACT
During European and Middle East history thousands of varieties of cultivated grapevines emerged and have been or are used for wine, table
JKI Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof, D-76833 Siebeldingen, Germany. *Corresponding author: reinhard.toepfer@jki.bund.de
grape or dry fruit (raisin) production (Table 7-1). These cultivars belong to only the Vitis species endemic to Europe and Asia Minor, Vitis vinifera L. It exists as the cultivated subspecies vinifera and its wild relative V. vinifera L. subsp. sylvestris Gmel. One of the oldest known cultivars traces back to 1283 when Philippe de Beaumanoir mentioned the cultivar Gouais Blanc (Gwäss or Heunisch), which together with Pinot forms the parentage of numerous cultivars of present importance (Bowers et al. 1999; Boursiquot et al. 2004).
