The Story of Grape

Wine and table grapes are Vitis vinifera, a different species from Concord (V. labrusca), muscadine, and the California natives V. californica and V. girdiana.

How it was found

Kew maps Vitis vinifera from south-central and southeastern Europe to Central Asia and northern Iran. The native list runs from France, Italy, and Greece through Türkiye, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, and Middle Asia. USDA GRIN’s native table also includes Northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco) plus Caucasus, Middle Asia, Western Asia, and parts of Europe. Related species: Kew accepts Vitis labrusca L. with native range southeastern Canada to eastern U.S.A.

UC Postharvest grape chapter: V. vinifera is thought to originate in the Caucasus Mountains. UCCE Chen: three accepted regions of origin for the genus Vitis — Middle East (V. vinifera and V. jacquemontii), Asia, and North America; the wild ancestor of today’s grapevines is Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris. UCCE Table Grapes webinar (Chen): grapevines were first domesticated around 8,000 BCE in the regions around the Caspian Sea. UC ANR Topics in Subtropics (Cornell/UC Davis grape-sex paper recap): “since the domestication of the grapevine 8,000 years ago.” Kew treats Vitis vinifera silvestris Vill. as a synonym of V. vinifera.

UC ANR Publication 21577 (Merenlender & Crawford): grapevines have been cultivated in California since the late 1700s, when Spanish missionaries brought European vines with them to ensure a supply of quality wine. M. Andrew Walker (UC Davis viticulture, hosted on UC ANR): Spanish missionaries brought viticulture to San Diego in 1769 with the first of a series of Missions that finished with the Sonoma Mission in 1823; the first V. vinifera grapes planted from San Diego to Sonoma became known as Mission. UCCE San Diego County: San Diego was the first area where vineyards were planted and wine produced; the county’s viticulture legacy reaches back into the 18th and 19th centuries on San Diego Mission lands.

How people used it

Kew lists food (also animal food, fuel, social uses). UC Postharvest: V. vinifera is the dominant species for wine, fresh fruit or drying. UCCE Chen: V. vinifera used for table, raisin, and wine grapes — “the one all around us in California.” Kew also lists fuel, with no named fuel product on the taxon page.

Kew: used to treat unspecified medicinal disorders and as a medicine (no named folk remedy).

Timeline

1. Around 8,000 BCE

   Caspian domestication, likely table first

   UCCE Table Grapes webinar (Chris Chen): grapevines were first domesticated around 8,000 BCE in the regions around the Caspian Sea. Same deck: first domesticated grapes were likely used as table grapes; winegrapes delineated around the same time.

   UCCE Chen — Table Grapes webinar (2025)

2. 8,000 years ago

   Perfect flowers, two gene pools

   UC ANR Topics in Subtropics recap of a Cornell/UC Davis PNAS paper: wines and table grapes exist thanks to hermaphroditic flower recombinations; “since the domestication of the grapevine 8,000 years ago.” Most cultivated grapevines are hermaphroditic; wild Vitis have only male or female flowers.

   UC ANR Topics in Subtropics — The Perfect Flower

3. 1753

   Named in Species Plantarum

   Kew accepts Vitis vinifera L., first published in Sp. Pl.: 202 (1753). USDA GRIN: Sp. pl. 1:202. 1753. Kew also accepts related Vitis labrusca L., Sp. Pl.: 203 (1753), as a different species. Habit on Kew: a liana of the temperate biome.

   Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

4. Late 1700s

   Spanish missionaries, European vines

   UC ANR Publication 21577 (Merenlender & Crawford, Vineyards in an Oak Landscape): grapevines have been cultivated in California since the late 1700s, when Spanish missionaries brought European vines with them to ensure a supply of quality wine.

   UC ANR Publication 21577

5. 1769

   Mission grape to San Diego

   M. Andrew Walker (Department of Viticulture and Enology, UC Davis), paper hosted on UC ANR: Spanish missionaries brought viticulture to San Diego, California, in 1769 with the first of a series of Missions that finished with the Sonoma Mission in 1823. The first V. vinifera grapes planted from San Diego to Sonoma became known as Mission and were the primary V. vinifera cultivar until the 1840s Gold Rush.

   Walker (UC Davis) — UC Davis’ Role in Improving California’s Grape Planting Materials

6. 18th and 19th centuries

   First vineyards on Mission lands

   UCCE San Diego County: San Diego was the first area where vineyards were planted and wine produced; the county’s viticulture and viniculture legacy reaches back into the 18th and 19th centuries on San Diego Mission lands.

   UCCE San Diego County — How To Navigate The Grape Production Landscape

7. 1840s Gold Rush

   Mission acreage, then north

   Walker (UC Davis, UC ANR-hosted): Mission was the primary V. vinifera cultivar until the 1840s Gold Rush; Mission acreage expanded in the southern state to meet immigrant wine needs; viticulture also began moving north into the Sierra Nevada Foothills and into Sonoma and Santa Clara Counties.

   Walker (UC Davis) — UC ANR intvit

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.