The DNA of the Chasselas Grape
The Origins Of The Grape Variety Revealed
Nov 11, 2009 Gail Mangold-Vine
‘’We don’t know who Chasselas’s ‘parents’ are,’’ says Dr. José Vouillamoz. ‘’This is not at all unusual for very old varieties. But we are now in a position to say that this white grape did not originate in Egypt, or, as has sometimes also been supposed, in Constantinople in present-day Turkey.’’
Using a combination of DNA research and documentary research into historical references to the grape to compile what he calls a ‘’historico-genetic’’ study, just released this week, Vouillamoz and co-author Dr. Claire Arnold found that genetic evidence points to ‘’France, Switzerland, Italy’’ as the place of origin.
Then, looking at the names given to the grape – it was referred to in France as ‘’Lausannois’’ and in the Swiss-German part of Switzerland as ‘’Welsch’’, a word used to denote what is now the area of the country that includes the canton of Vaud and the city of Lausanne – the focus narrows in on Switzerland.
Vouillamoz adds that another reliable indicator of the origins of a variety is ‘’comparative evidence that suggests that wherever a grape shows the most significant diversity in the morphology of the different types stands a high chance of being its place of origin‘’ – which again pointed to the area around Lausanne where the finest Chasselas wine in the world is produced to this day.
Chasselas: Table Grapes And Wine
Before DNA research was possible, finding reliable information about Chasselas was complicated because as an extremely old variety it has not only been introduced in many countries around the world, but has been given many names. Even now, reliably ascertaining how many countries grow the grape as a table grape and how many vinify it is something of a problem.
Romania and Hungary both devote considerably more acreage to the variety than Swiss growers do, but it is largely consumed as a table grape in those countries, from which it is supposed to have been imported from France with its well-known Moissac Chasselas table grapes. But Chasselas is also vinified in Moissac, as it is in the Loire region, Alsace, and Savoy.
In Switzerland, it is overwhelmingly vinified, mostly in the Swiss-French cantons that are also the country’s biggest wine producers, which is to say Vaud and neighboring Geneva and number one producer Valais, where it is referred to as Fendant having been brought there from Vaud in the late 19th century.
Study Commissioned By Vaud Association of Wine Professionals Wine And Brotherhood
Financing for the Vouillamoz-Arnold study came from the Communauté Interprofessionnelle des Vins Vaudois, an association of Vaud wine professionals, and the Confrérie des Vignerons, the Vaud brotherhood of winegrowers. (The Confrérie’s beautiful premises and interesting exhibition in the Château de Vevey may be visited. Since the late 18th century, the brotherhood has regularly organized Vevey’s mammoth Fête des Vignerons, or winegrowers’ festival. From 1955 on, the festival has taken place every 22 years. The previous one to date was in 1999.)
Coinciding as the study does with a new awareness of the potential of Chasselas, both for cellar-aging previously thought to be impossible – common wisdom had it down as a light, ‘drink immediately’ wine of little complexity – and as a liqueurish sweet wine, the head of the Vaud wine promotion office Nicolas Schorderet anticipates that it will go a long way to raising the Chasselas profile especially after one of the principal cultivation areas for the grape, the Lavaux, was elevated to UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2007.
New Appreciation Of Chasselas
Vouillamoz himself foresees the day when Vaud-produced Chasselas whites achieve such renown ‘’that instead of saying ‘that’s Chasselas from this or that appellation’, people will say it's St. Saphorin, or Dézelay, and everybody will not only know what they’re talking about but that the grape those wines are made from is Chasselas’’ – this being the usual procedure for red Burgundies for example, where there’s no mention of Pinot Noir, just a reference to the place the wine comes from, e.g. Gevrey-Chambertin.
The botanist, who after a stint at UC Davis is presently associated with the University of Neuchâtel, worked with UK-based master of wine Jancis Robinson on updating ‘’everything about grape varieties‘’ in the 3rd edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine. Robinson also features a short interview with him about Swiss wines on her website.
For another article on Chasselas, see The Many Faces of Chasselas. Also of interest: Switzerland's Wines and Swiss Wine Museums.
A well-known Chasselas wine from Aigle, Vaud
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