VIA Verona 2026 Advanced Seminar with Professor Attilio Scienza: Rethinking autochthony, new meanings for an ancient word

Professore Attilio Scienza: Rethinking Autochthony: new meanings for an ancient word

Professor Scienza is the Chief Scientist of the Vinitaly International Academy (VIA) program and his input into the course has been profound. He contributed to the rewriting of the textbook, Italian Wine Unplugged 2.0, he answers weekly questions from students on The Italian Wine Podcast, he has generously shared mountains of material and his vast experience and knowledge with the VIA Community, as well as publishing a new book with our publishing wing every year.  He received the 2026 Vinitaly Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2021 Masi Civiltà del Vino Award, and many other prestigious titles throughout his long career as a grapevine geneticist, vineyard consultant, and professor. He is widely recognised as the foremost expert on Italian grape genetics in the world.

Today’s session focused on how we define “autochthonous” grapes and other categories that attempt to place grapes within a timeline and a place of origin. Scienza points out the problems of communication about vines and grapes:

Autochthonous = geographical origin

Ancient = presumed historical origin

Old/domestic = once grown locally

Minor/local = grown in small areas in confined environments

It’s not always possible to use these words effectively, particularly when the origin story of the grape is not possible to define. Italy has a very unique location in Europe, between east and west, and a very long history, with lots of cultures who have passed through, each one leaving something behind, including vines, spontaneous crossings, and various food traditions.

Scienza acknowledged that names of grapes are also very complicated – there are synonyms, homonyms, errors, and all sorts of local dialect driven nicknames that make it difficult to decode which grapes are actually the same, but called by another name. All of this makes it hard to distinguish and unravel the evidence, historical data and genetic data. The advent of DNA analysis has helped decode some of these problems but not all of them.

The paradox of our identification system is: how can we call something autochthonous when we don’t know its exact origin? Sangiovese is a classic example of this – its main home is considered Tuscany, but it clearly arrived in Sicily first, with parents unknown, leaving many offspring behind in the south as it journeyed north and found its best expression in Tuscany.

The question of time is also key: how long does a vine have to be cultivated in a place before it can be called traditional? What is really just nostalgia for a favorite grape that hasn’t actually been here for very long? An example of this is Merlot in Veneto, which has been cultivated in Veneto for 200 years, but that doesn’t make it ancient or native. Tradition enters into the question of time as well. Despite having grown international varieties in Italy for many years, we are now focusing on native grapes, so the two traditions collide. 

Globalization and internationalization of vines has added to the confusion, as well as allowed us to rediscover ancient vines that were lost, not recorded, not widely cultivated. We only really appreciated the value of autochthonous varieties in Italy when some of the more famous international varieties became very widespread in the world and we began to risk losing our native ancient varieties. Only in the 1970s did the interest in saving our Italian autochthonous grapes really come to the forefront.

Autochthonous vines are now in fashion, with young people interested in them, in an almost sentimental way, some wines remind them of old relatives, family history, and give them an emotional experience. Italy offers over 500 native grapes to explore and the curiosity of new consumers is drawn to trying these unusual grapes.

Native grapes tend to be more resistant to climate change problems and better suited to sustainability, they are particularly suited to their local soils, local climate, and they have developed built-in systems over time, in symbiosis with their location and conditions.

Storytelling about the origin of vines and personal stories of winemakers have become important parts of marketing and promoting native vines. Italy’s autochthonous grapes have also benefitted from the concept in marketing that “small is beautiful,”  the idea that we recognise in ourselves a love for things that are rare, unusual and unique, and they tend to be more valued for their “smallness” and rarity. Italian native grapes fall into this category

Autochthonous vines tend to have close relationships with local culture and local cuisine, we say if it grows together, it goes together. They tend to have a deep richness in their sensory profiles, each one is quite different from others in certain definable ways. Uniquely able to pair with lots of foods from all over the world due to a wide range of characteristics not typically found in most prominent international varieties. International grapes have “standardized” over the past couple of decades. Everyone knows what to expect from a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc, but Italian autochthonous grapes are not like that, they provide something new and untasted.

Recent market research shows what young people will be looking for when they are buying wine in the next couple of years. Predictions of which wines will expand in growth in the next 2-3 years:

Autochthonous grapes 22%

Organic wines 20% (this is less dependable as scientifically certifiable)

Sustainable wines 18% (this has a scientific basis for certification)

Wines from specific Italian regions 17%

Low alcohol 8%

High alcohol 6%

Wines to mix for cocktails 2%

Alcohol-free 1% (seems less important to young consumers than previously thought)

Millennials and wine trends:

In Italy, it reflects the ties to their history and family. Americans aren’t familiar with the concept of autochthony, there are not any vines there that fall into that category in the USA, but it may be that they can appreciate the concept in another country and be interested in it.

The problem of  “genetic erosion” in viticulture is demonstrated through these figures:

25,000 varieties exist in collections and cultivation

13,000 wine vines exist

1,500 vines are actually cultivated 

15 varieties = 50% of global production

6 varieties = 30% of global production

Scienza believes the link between autochthony and vocation is undeniable.

It is clear that certain vines find their best territory and flourish there, even if they are not originally from that place. Some of the earliest documentation of grapes goes back a long way, and we see there is a gap due to the Little Ice Age between 1300-1500, where many varieties disappeared forever, but certain vines became resistant to cold and were then selected and replanted for their resistance. We have a similar problem now with extreme heat, so we need to select vines that are more resistant to high temperatures.

When we look at Trentino, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto, we find vines with different names that are ultimately all from the same DNA material, but have earned different names for the characteristics they show in the glass. “Epigenetics” - refers to the expression; if we take a vine and plant it in a different place, the resulting wine will be different to the wine from the original place, although the grape is genetically the same.

Scienza says everything began with the domestication of the wild vine at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000-11,000 years ago. Many cultivated vines in Italy today have their roots in these progenitor vines for the domesticated vines we know today. A process of selection that lasted 10,000 years can be seen through the lens of Lambruscaia Maremmana, named by Virgil using Lambrum =edge and Bruscum = bush, a plant cultivated on edges of wild fields  - a wild plant that went through “para domestication” over time.  Families today still collect these grapes from these wild vines when a child is born, then drink the wine when the child gets married, so the wines are clearly able to evolve over time and still be drinkable. In Sardinia, wild vines are still harvested, having received no cultivation work at all.

Growing vines in an ancient, wild, promiscuous style, with trees as support creates more uniform ripening from these tall vertical vines, a production of 4-40 kg per vine, with grapes are more free from disease and easier to detach the grapes from the bunch.

The concept of autochthony has changed – “uncorking the grape genome,” research in 2008 showed that pre-domestication is still evident in the genetic structure of some Lambruscos.  This was confirmed in 2013 research by the Istituto Agrario San Michele dall’Adige research.

2024 research showed the following:

There is a genetic component of wild subspecies in almost all Italian grape varieties.

Two genetic groups with mixed ancestry: domesticated vines and wild subspecies

Grapes obtained from domestication of wild vines: Asprinio, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Enantio Lambrusco a foglia frastagliata, Aglianico, Refosco – the leaves are completely different, morphological evolution

[Asprinio is the same as Greco di Tufo, which was not known until recently]

[Algianico is vine from the plain = piano] 

Scienza introduced the concept of Genetic Introgression – the combining of genetic material through a spontaneous crossing of plants in nature. This mixing gives strength and resistance against disease and climate change. People are created this way too, the blending of genetic material. 

The entire family of 32 Lambruscos on a chart shows 7-10 still cultivated, some in Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy, Piemonte, Central and Southern Italy, with a dozen no longer cultivated.

Sangiovese has obvious roots in Southern Italy, which is evident through the high number of synonyms for Sangiovese in Calabria and Sicily.

FOUNDATION GRAPES:
Sangiovese

Mantonico Bianco (Greek) the white of the masses in Sicily before the arrival of the Arabs

(those two were the power couple of the south, parents of many varieties)

Malvasia Odorossima

Bombino Biano

Moscato Bianco

Garganega (began in the south, left many descendants behind there, and is now settled in Veneto)

All these grapes originate in the south from the Magna Grecia era. They are not from wild vines.

The extent of Scienza’s encyclopedic knowledge was on display as he mentioned that the name Mantonico comes from the word “prophet” and can be linked to the praying mantis insect, also a religious reference.

Scienza says we now need a new definition of autochthonous, since almost all Italian grapes considered native actually come from another place.  Recent DNA analysis revolutionized our understanding of European grapevine pedigrees. In Italy, only a few cultivars are derived directly from the domestication of wild vines. The places of origin are very different to the places of current cultivation and winemaking tradition. Sangiovese is the obvious example, with its origin in the South and is now considered native in Tuscany. The definition of autochthonous should include the place where the vine expresses itself best.

Professore is very invested in the importance of the travels of vines throughout history. He points to the acclimatization triangle of Sicily, and the Adriatic route (on the east coast) and the Tyrrhenian route (on the west coast) from south to north. These two trade routes created a hidden frontier that more or less follows the spine of the Apennines. This frontier prevented eastern vines from arriving in the west and vice versa.

Sangiovese’s history in Tuscany:

1590 first record (Soderini)

1726 called San Zoveto by Cosimo Trinci

1773 Villifranchi says San Gioveta was the protagonist of Tuscan wines

1773 a wedding poem says Sangiovese has aphrodisiac quality.  The vine is recorded in Romagna for the first time

1876 Accademia dei Georgofili documents the common identity of Sangiovese, Prugnolo, Brunello, Morellino

Autochthony and Vocation are clearly shown in Tuscany in its famous regions:

Brunello di Montalcino

Chianti Classico

Morellino di Scansano

Sangiovese di Romagna

Chianti

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

These areas demonstrate the particular suitability of a place for the production of wine with specific characteristics.

Constitutive dimension: time space collectivity and functioning mechanisms of the DOC

Symbolic =Denomination, material = rarity, product specification

Ontological dimension: process of socialization of nature, an awareness of the place as an object itself

Scienza says we must look to the “Essence” as the element that defines an individual or a place as such and that makes it different from everything else [From the essentialist concept of Aristotle, Kant, and Heidegger].

TO BE AUTOCHTHONOUS, Scienza says grapes must be:

Recognised from an ampelographic and viticultural view

Recognised for its oenological potential

Recognised and valued through marketing strategies