AMPELOGRAPHY HISTORY

The history of Ampelography in the nineteenth century

The nineteenth century witnesses the birth of modern ampelography. Its definition, the concept and the methods are defined. It becomes a discipline of importance economic value, an essential instrument in the revival and the development of the European vineyard.

In a world that begins of open its frontiers to international trade, the production of good wine in suitable areas becomes increasingly important, such that it enters the economic scope of trade. The first ampelographers of the nineteenth century are aware that their work is of important economic value.

The need to get to know the grapes in order to improve production is well known to the illuminated oenologists of the early nineteenth century. One may for example, cite General Staglieno:

"He would carry out jobs, to relate this point at length, that he would examine and recognise the multiple species of indigenous vines from the various provinces, and their distribution in relation to climatic patterns, the soil, etc.” in such a way that, through the use of correct oenological practices, “our wine may compare, in quality, colour and flavour, to that of the Cap: which will equal, in the value of a few bottles, the price of a present brenta (a measure of wine in use at the time, measuring approximately 50 litres)”.

The basics

In order to carry out an ampelographic study two basic conditions should be satisfied: that the number of varieties is not infinite, that is, a number that does not exceed human capacities, and that the varieties possess stable physiological traits, that are independent of soil type, climatic conditions, etc.

Both conditions are discussed, in many cases at length, by scholars of the early nineteenth century. Giuseppe Acerbi may, with respect to the first condition, represent the position that is eventually adopted: the number of varieties is reasonable.

“One must therefore still resort to the descriptions and deal with vines in the same manner that botanists deal with plants. If they were capable to work with sixty thousand species, why shouldn’t farmers be able to deal with only a thousand or so species?”

The first International Commission of Ampelography

In 1872, the first International Commission of Ampelography is established in Vienna, with the intent to coordinate the activities of the different Countries and draft a general ampelographic catalogue.

The most important work carried out by this Commission, and which left a trace, was the General Ampelographic Catalogue, compiled by Hermann Goethe in 1876, and which was entitled “Ampelographisches Worterbuch”. A new improved and amended edition was then published in 1878, entitled “Handbuch der Ampelographie”.

The Italian Central Ampelographic Committee is constituted (1871)

In an Italy recently unified into a Nation, the honourable Castagnola, Minister for Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, after having heard the opinion of the Council for Agriculture on the 16th April 1872, issued on the 20th June of the same year a Decree with which he set up the Central Committee for Agriculture. This Committee had the scope to “direct and coordinate the ampelographic work that is carried out by the local Commissions, and prepare the material for the compilation of an Italian Ampelography”. Francesco de Blasis was appointed President of the Committee. In 1874 following the disappearance of De Blasis, Francesco Lawley was nominated his successor.

The responsibility of the Central Committee and of the Provincial Commissions is the study of the entire ampelographic wealth present on national territory, including the oenological characteristics, and the creation of a proper viticultural inventory for that period. The reports of the work carried out by the Provincial Commissions are published from 1876 to 1887 in the Ampelographic Bulletin, released in 22 issues that constitute a source of information of extraordinary importance because they were real and proper “photographs” of the viticulture of the past, that reported information on old vine varieties that have nowadays nearly disappeared and of which all trace would have been lost had such a source of information not been present.

In all viticultural countries Ampelographic Catalogues are compiled in which the characteristics of the different vine varieties are described, often accompanied by colour drawings and subsequently, by photographs (Viala and Vermorel, 1901 – 1909; Molon, 1906).

However, the most beautiful work published by the Central Committee was the Ampelografia Italiana. It was released in issues of which the first in 1879, and the last, which was the seventh issue, in 1890. These issues contain the description of 28 varieties of Italian vines, to which as many large chromolithographic plates, drawn and painted by G. Palchetti and P. Rossart, were included. Six hundred copies of this work were published, and were soon sold out due to the multitude of requests.

With the decree of the 20th March 1887 the Central Ampelographic Committee is substituted by the Central Commission for Viticulture and Oenology, composed of 12 members; and with the decree of the 4th November 1888 the Provincial Ampelographic Commission is substituted by others with the title of Provincial Commissions of Viticulture and Oenology. At the beginning of the twentieth century, following several battles to control the destructive system, on which all efforts of the anti-Phylloxera system were focused, work began to restructure the Italian vineyard; a task which will last for decades reaping the fruit of all the series of studies which in the 1800’s witnessed the emergence and development of Ampelography.