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'Joan of Arc was able to bite into the same grape as us': Pinot Noir already existed in the Middle Ages

A 600-year-old grape seed discovered in the toilets of a medieval French hospital is genetically identical to the grapes still used today to produce pinot noir, scientists announced on Tuesday.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/03/25/joan-of-arc-was-able-to-bite-into-the-same-grape-as-us-pinot-noir-already-existed-in-the-m

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Transcript
00:01Found in the famous wines of champagne and the Côte d'Or, Pinot Noir is an iconic grape variety of
00:07punch vineyards and has likely been around longer than we thought.
00:11A study mapping the genome of grape seeds found at various archaeological sites traced this fruit in the same genetic
00:18form to a trash bean dating from the 15th century.
00:22It means that the 15th century is a famous insect for the end of the 100 years of war, for
00:28example.
00:28It is the one who saw the end of Jeanne d'Arc.
00:32We can imagine that Jeanne d'Arc had been able to grow the same fruits of the vine that we
00:39produce today.
00:40While it was indeed consumed, scientists do not know whether the inhabitants of Valenciennes in the 15th century
00:47consumed it as juice, wine or table grapes. Beyond the consumption habits of the French in the Middle Ages,
00:54the sequencing results primarily illustrate the use of agricultural methods identical to those of today.
01:01The reason Pinot Noir's DNA hasn't changed is that for 600 years, winemakers have propagated their wines through cuttings to
01:09preserve the variety's signature characteristics.
01:12We are also doing a big study on looking for these old grapes.
01:17Because in fact, it brings us a lot of things about the climate that changes, the grapes that will also
01:24be more resistant.
01:26And so for us, it is something that we look a lot and on which we work to try to
01:32re-create this dynamic with very ancestral grapes.
01:36According to the study, evidence of various propagation techniques such as cuttings has been found in French grapes dating back
01:44to the Iron Age over 2,500 years ago.
01:48And evidence of the exchange of French grapes cuttings has been found from Spain to the Middle East during the
01:55Roman period.
01:58The
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