An Interview with Dr. José Vouillamoz: DNA profiler and wine connoisseur

Swiss botanist José Vouillamoz wears two hats: he’s a specialist in Alpine herbs and plants, and a DNA researcher making quite a name for himself identifying the place of origin of grape varieties - in fact, he recently rewrote the parts of the Oxford Companion to Wine that have to do with that subject. He and Dr. Claire Arnold have just released their findings on the origins of Chasselas: the grape is native to the area around Lausanne, where the best Chasselas wines are made to this day.

Gail Mangold-Vine: First, can you tell us a little about your background and how you came to be researching the DNA of grapes?

José Vouillamoz: I was trained as a botanist at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) where I did my PhD thesis on plant molecular systematics, an odd string of words to say that we classify plants by comparing their DNA. I had been a wine lover for a long time, so I wondered how this technique could be applied to grapes. Well, some people had thought about it before, in particular Prof. Carole Meredith at the University of California in Davis who discovered in 1997 the unsuspected parentage of Cabernet Sauvignon: it is a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. Since almost nothing had been done on Swiss grapes at that time, I applied for a grant to the Swiss National Foundation to study the origin and parentage of Valais varieties at UC Davis. I got the grant in 2001 and I spent one year at Prof. Meredith’s lab in Davis. Since then, the virus is in me.

Gail Mangold-Vine: What impact do you think DNA research is going to have, in general but also specifically as regards Chasselas?

José Vouillamoz: Wine consumers are usually interested in knowing the name and origin of a grape variety, and many legends have been told about the origin of the most important grapes. For Chasselas, several hypotheses were made on its origin: Switzerland, France, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, etc. DNA profiling now provides a powerful tool to reconstruct grape parentages. DNA recently established that the origin of Chasselas is most likely to be in the Leman lake area. The impact of such studies is both cultural and economic: they help to better understand the local heritage of viticulture and the migrations of grapes and men, and they can be used as a marketing tool, because the more stories we have to tell about a wine, the more we can sell it.

Gail Mangold-Vine: What are the avenues for developing this sort of research worldwide and the benefits to be derived from such development? How about Switzerland specifically?

José Vouillamoz: This sort of research is rather expensive, because it requires trained scientists and well-equipped laboratories. In the Old World, historic wine countries like France, Spain and Italy began studying the origin and parentage of their grapes in the mid-90’s, followed by Portugal, Croatia and Greece at the end of the 1990’s, and then by Switzerland, Bulgaria, Iran and Hungary since 2000. In the New World, there is no native wine grape variety, and all grapes cultivated today have been imported. Australia was the first to test DNA profiling on their grape collection in 1993, followed by California since 1994. More recently, Brazil, Chile and Argentina also made DNA studies on their grape varieties. In Switzerland, the State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER) funded the Swiss Vitis Microsatellite Database, in which I have created an online database gathering all the DNA profiles of all the grape varieties cultivated in Switzerland. Such studies provide a better characterization of the varieties and are relevant to the understanding of the transmission of resistance genes, which might provide new ideas for future artificial crosses in order to improve grape resistance and quality.

Gail Mangold-Vine: You are also a wine taster, and it would interest me to hear what you think some of the best Swiss wines are - not specific wineries so much as the highlights and unique features of Swiss wine production around the country - and where you think the wine scene is or should be going in this country.

José Vouillamoz: In Switzerland, over 100 grape varieties are cultivated on around 15′000 hectares, which might well be a world record of grape biodiversity. Almost each Swiss canton has its traditional wine: Dôle and Fendant in Valais, Chasselas in Vaud, Gamay in Geneva, Pinot Noir and Chasselas in Neuchâtel, Merlot in Ticino, Blauburgunder (= Pinot Noir) in Graubünden and other Swiss German cantons, etc. After these classics, curious readers should get to know some exciting and often highly sought-after wines like: Cornalin, Amigne and Arvine in Valais, Aligoté and Viognier in Geneva, Dornfelder, Dunkelfelder and Räuschling in Swiss German cantons, etc. The most adventurous readers could actively seek out unique and rare varietal wines with a long traditional history: Lafnetscha, Himbertscha, Durize or Rèze in Valais, Plant Robert (= Gamay) and Mondeuse Noire in Vaud, Completer in Graubünden, Bondola in Ticino, Schwarzer Erlenbacher in Zurich, Elbling in Swiss German cantons, etc. Arvine and Completer are my favorite Swiss wines. Arvine is cultivated on some 150 ha in Valais and gives fascinating dry and sweet wines. Completer is a rare white grape of Graubünden cultivated on no more than 2.5 ha by a handful of producers, giving powerful and complex wines with significant ageing ability.

With such high production costs, Swiss wines will never be able to compete with good quality-price ratio wines from other European countries or from the New World. The Swiss wine scene must definitely build on excellence, and several world-class Swiss wines can act as flagships for the entire country.

Gail Mangold-Vine: Any tips for English speakers new to Swiss wines about the best ways to go about discovering them, to get a real overview?

José Vouillamoz: Swiss wine export is approximately 1% of the total production, therefore the best way to discover Swiss wine is to come to Switzerland. Besides reading your articles on Swisster, English speakers could check www.swisswine.ch for information on grapes and wine-producing regions, and the English version of the Guide des Vins Suisses for an extensive selection and description of producers and their wines. The following retailers have an excellent selection of the best Swiss wines: Club Divo and Club CAVESA, two serious wine clubs with a thorough selection including very hard-to-find stuff; Lavinia in Geneva; and La Cave de Reverolle near Morges.

Visual courtesy of José Vouillamoz