The Seed, The Toilet, and the Nature of Wine
The discovery of a toilet-dwelling grape seed reminds us of what sets wine apart.
“A 600-year-old grape seed discovered in the toilet of a medieval hospital in France…”
If you can’t continue reading the article that begins like this, then you have no business claiming you possess curiosity.
Alone, the idea that a 600-year-old grape seed was discovered is pretty interesting. But, even without knowing anything else, the fact that it was found in an ancient toilet in France…well…this presents a curious mind with all sorts of opportunity to delve into metaphor.
The actual implication of this find, as described by Sophie Arundel in The Drinks Business, is that it presents an “extraordinary genetic link to 600 years of pinot noir cultivation.”
More specifically:
“The seed was uncovered in a latrine at a 15th-century hospital in Valenciennes, northern France, where toilets were sometimes used as rubbish pits. Researchers sequenced its DNA and found a direct genetic match with present-day pinot noir.
“It is not possible to say whether the fruit was eaten like table grapes or whether people made wine from it at the time,” said study co-author Laurent Bouby of the Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier, speaking to AFP.
“However, the discovery establishes a clear connection between modern France’s wine industry and its medieval roots. Ludovic Orlando, a paleogeneticist at the University of Toulouse and co-author of the study, noted the historical context of the period.”
The Drinks Business report on the genetic implications of the pinot-in-the-toilet-seed is important on its face, but it also reminds us that the history of viticulture and winemaking—particularly its ancient history—remains ripe for investigation, discovery, and insight.
Personally, I’m most interested in how viticulture and winemaking migrated across the Mediterranean and Europe, how culinary traditions influenced winemaking (and vice versa) as viticulture expanded and matured, and how grape varieties established themselves in different regions. But that’s me.
The story of the toilet grape seed drew me in mainly because lately I’ve been thinking about what sets wine apart from the other alcoholic beverages that compete with wine for palate space. The primary thing that sets wine apart from other beverages and that has always set it apart is its perennial nature; that is, the beverage can only be made once per year as the grapes ripen. One chance, once per year, for winemakers to create the drink.
Beer and spirits require water, found year-round. Wine is critically connected to the annual harvest in such a way that it can easily be imbued with important symbolism that few other products, let alone alcoholic beverages, can claim. This fact is the source of its spiritual meaning. The long wait for the grapes and the risk that comes with a single annual harvest are the sources of the celebrations long-connected to wine across the grape-growing world. It is also the reason that a single grape seed found in an ancient toilet in France generates so much interest 600 years after it was deposited there…in some fashion.
Some folks worry that the downturn in wine consumption we are currently experiencing is in part due to the wine world losing the interest of people (primarily younger people) who do not connect to the beverage, largely due to how it has been discussed, sold, marketed, or written about.
Maybe the enduring quality that imbued wine with spiritual character from the moment the grape was first domesticated for wine production to the current day is the precise point of differentiation that will draw people back to the product. Perhaps a single seed found in a toilet in France that links today’s popular Pinot Noir to Medieval drinkers and winemakers is the hook upon which an industry seeking successful differentiation can hang its outreach.
By Tom Wark
Tom Wark is the publisher of Fermentation, a source of commentary on the wine business that he has written since 2004. He is also the publisher of THE SPILL, a free, daily newsletter that curates the best wine content on the web.