Before it's too late: the world's largest collection of grapevines will be put into a cryobank

With increasingly unpredictable weather, global standardization and the emergence of new pathogens, winemaking is going through hard times. Bordeaux growers, for example, believe that too high temperatures could permanently change the taste of two of the region's most popular grapes, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, and thus the taste of wine.

This prompted the French National Institute for Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research to create a project to freeze micro-cuttings from the world's largest collection of grapevines, known as the Louvre of Wine, according to the Daily Mail. Then, if the current popular grape varieties really die out, one day they can be resurrected. It is likely that some of the "ancient" varieties will not be the most productive, but they may be more resistant to insects and pathogens, experts say.

Like some other plant specimens, the grape cuttings will be placed in the Cold Temperature Conservation Center, a € 10.4 million cryobank that opened this month. The vines will be stored there at -196 ° C in liquid nitrogen. Now grape samples are in the Domaine de Vassal center in Montpellier: on an area of 27 hectares, vines are stored here, which have been harvested since the 19th century. Every year biologists add about 80 new types of grapes, so there are now over 2,700 varieties from 54 countries.

It is curious that the Domaine de Vassal collection appeared in 1876, when phylloxera, a root aphid brought from North America, fell on French vineyards, which forever destroyed some grape varieties. For the first time phylloxera was registered in Languedoc, after which the insect spread not only in France, but throughout Europe.

Wine production in France is expected to be at an all-time low this year, with frost and disease affecting vineyards across the country from Burgundy to Bordeaux. As a result, the volume is likely to be reduced by a third, and wine at Christmas will be more expensive than ever around the world.