A systematic approach to organize grapevine varieties’ naming at the
international level while retaining their cultural heritage and
allegiance across different countries and wine regions
António
1*
Graça ,
José
2
Manso ,
George
3
Sandeman
1Sogrape
Vinhos S.A., R&D Department, 4430-809 Avintes, Portugal; * corresponding author
2ADVID – Associação para o Desenvolvimento da Viticultura Duriense, 5050-106 Godim (Peso da Régua), Portugal
3ACIBEV – Associação dos Comerciantes e Industriais de Bebidas Espirituosas e Vinhos, 1200-092 Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract. Grapevine varieties’ names are used by farmers to distinguish
plants in their vineyards, associating them with agronomic behaviours
and oenological aptitudes. They also provide pedigree and a sense of
origin to wines from territories where they are predominantly grown,
often working as a communication key from producers to consumers.
The OIV compiles an international list of grapevine varieties and their
synonyms, which is available online and in print. The list results from
merging national lists from OIV member and non-member countries.
Because of no international naming agreement, the OIV database and
list lack consistency across countries. This situation creates issues in the
relationship between actors of the wine industry, from nursery supplying
wrong materials to growers, growers supplying wrong fruit to
winemakers and eventually retailers offering the wrong wine to
consumers. In the last two years, Portugal and Spain revised their
respective official varieties’ list incorporating innovations for naming
varieties with increased objectivity. To organize objective naming
internationally while retaining traditional associations with countries and
wine regions, we propose to associate both Portuguese and Spanish
approaches for a conflict-free international reference to sort out
synonymies, thus evolving the OIV variety list into a more usable,
harmonized and objective tool for all concerned sectors of the global
wine industry.
Conclusion. By implementing the proposed
format, we believe a comprehensive, objective
and more useful tool will be made from OIV’s
list while, at the same time, preserving the
geographical, cultural and historical value
conferred by each and every synonym to the
wine made from its respective variety.
Proposal. Grapevine varieties are one important chapter of wine
industry’s diversity, one that has been made important by the constant
communication between producers and consumers about the role of
varieties in the characteristics of the resulting wine. In order to safeguard
credibility in this communication, it is important to have tools that
constantly assist the progressive elimination of the existing confusion.
One such tool is OIV’s “International list of vine varieties and their
synonyms”, which is updated every year.
We propose a new format for the list as shown in Table 1. This
format will provide an objective reference while, at the same
time keeping all synonyms used in all countries organized in a
way that does not promote one synonym over the others. This
is achieved by:
 Including a code made of a unique, random, 5-digit number
to objectively reference each variety;
 Synonyms associated with each code should be listed by
alphabetical order, following the code;
 Country(ies) where each synonym is used should also be
listed after the synonym by alphabetical order.
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