This material is prepared based on the original historical research from the section "Histoire de l'ampélographie" ("History of Ampelography") authored by Ch. Tallavignes, published in the first volume of the classic "Ampélographie" edited by P. Viala and V. Vermorel (Macon, 1901–1910).

19th-Century Biological Crises and the Decentralization of Science

In 1845, oidium was officially recorded for the first time in European vineyards — a devastating fungal disease that triggered widespread panic among vignerons. The fight against the disease and the gradual introduction of sulfur took years, during which theoretical ampelographical research was forced into the background. The entire attention of practical growers was captured by a single task — studying the relative resistance of grape varieties to the new infection. The most valuable document of this crisis era was the detailed report by Professor Bouchardat, who painstakingly examined the behavior of all 2,050 vines in the Luxembourg Garden under epidemic conditions, alongside the regional memorandums of Cazalis-Allut and Pellicot.

In parallel, the idea of decentralization, previously advanced by Duchesne and Delavau, triumphed in science. The great French agronomist Count Adrien de Gasparin, in his "Cours d'Agriculture" (1843–1849), sharply criticized Odart's "Universal Ampelography" for its superficial view and lack of clear botanical definitions. De Gasparin directed Hardy, the keeper of the Luxembourg Garden, to carry out precise temperature calculations of vegetation. Ultimately, the scientist divided all grape varieties into seven strict sections, calculated by the sum of active temperatures required by the vine from the moment of bud burst to the full maturity of the fruit.

The Manifesto of Doctor Guyot and the Breeding Breakthrough of Henri Bouschet

During this same period, one of the most prominent figures of the century entered the viticultural arena — Doctor Jules Guyot. In 1858, he proclaimed his famous uncompromising manifesto: "Never will Muscat become Cabernet, never will Cabernet become Pinot, never will Pinot become Gamay, never will Gamay become Chasselas... the idea of the cru has absorbed the idea of the variety, whereas, in reality, the variety dominates the cru! The knowledge and religion of the variety, that is the base of viticultural progress!". Despite the excessive absolutism of this theory, Guyot undertook extensive expeditions throughout France. His three-volume "Étude des vignobles de France" (1868) became a milestone in the history of science, though, caught up in generalizations, the author repeatedly confused synonyms and complicated the varietal map.

A genuine breeding and ampelographical breakthrough was achieved in the south of France by Henri Bouschet, who continued the pioneering experiments of his father Louis. Through painstaking directed crossing of southern vines with the ancient coloring variety Teinturier, he created a unique collection of hybrids with colored juice, which entered history as the Bouschet hybrids (Hybrides Bouschet). Pierre Viala's 1886 monograph detailed the mechanism of these crosses. The introduction of the Alicante Bouschet vine became a life-saving anchor for the southern departments at a time when French winemaking was desperately trying to defend its market against the expansion of deeply colored Spanish wines.

The German School: From Metzger's Catalogues to the System of Lamprecht von Babo

In German-speaking lands, the first half of the 19th century was marked by a burst of activity proceeding in parallel with French works. The first stones in the foundation of the revived science were laid by Frege (who proposed a grape classification system based on berry shape in 1804), K. Gmelin (who in 1805 first proved the wild dioeciousness of certain forest vines), Kecht (whose 1813 manual became a classic), and the pomologies of Christus, Dittrich, and Fintelmann. In 1827, Johann Metzger, the gardener of Heidelberg University, published the foundational work "Rhenish Viticulture" (Der Rheinische Weinbau). Metzger, drawing upon Clemente's method, compiled flawless morphological descriptions for 93 grape varieties of Germany, unraveling more than 800 false synonyms.

The German School: From Metzger's Catalogues to the System of Lamprecht von Babo

The pinnacle of German theoretical thought was the monumental treatise by Lamprecht von Babo, "The Vine and Its Varieties" (Der Weinstock und seine Varietäten), published in Frankfurt in 1843 — simultaneously with Odart's "Universal Ampelography". Von Babo established a grandiose collection of live vine plants on his estate in Weinheim. Unlike Odart, who focused on practical attributes, Babo aimed to create a strictly botanical work. As his methodical basis, he took the writings of the great Austrian ampelographer Trummer (1841) and developed a unique macrocarpic classification of grape varieties, which became a harmonious fusion of the Frege and Clemente systems. Babo distributed all vines according to three fixed criteria:

  • By the anatomical shape of the berry (round, oval, oblong);
  • By the character and density of the pubescence on the lower side of the grape leaf;
  • By the geometric shape of the leaf blade and the structure of its teeth.

Stoltz's Rhenish Ampelography and Victor Rendu's Official Catalogues

In the middle of the century, despite the prolonged crisis of oidium, the study of the vine on the ground continued. In 1852, J.-C. Stoltz completed his monumental thirty-year work "Rhenish Ampelography." Stoltz maintained the principle that the description of a grape variety must be simultaneously botanical and cultural, including history, synonymy, and agronomic and economic value. His book was sharply criticized by Odart for its excessive length and its adoption of German descriptive models, yet Stoltz recorded a major mass of data. His concept of the species was unique: he asserted that every grape variety originates from one of three "primitive forms" — white, light red, or dark black, and all modern vine variations are merely their modifications under the influence of terroir. At the same time, Stoltz demonstrated high stability of the vine, noting that during forty years of personal observations in the Rhine valley, not a single variety altered its habit.

In 1857, the luxurious official atlas "French Ampelography," compiled by the Inspector General of Agriculture Victor Rendu, was published in France. Although Count Odart jealously viewed this book as a direct competitor to his own work, Rendu honestly acknowledged in the preface that his descriptions of sixty primary vines of the empire were practical rather than strictly academic. Rendu's most valuable innovation, fully validated by the further development of science, was the mandatory inclusion of detailed chemical and geological soil analysis of the primary French crus into the ampelographical variety profiles, linking vine biology with the terroir.

Victor Pulliat and His Three-Volume Summary "Le Vignoble"

The most prominent ampelographer of the second half of the 19th century was Victor Pulliat (1827–1896). Reading Odart's books in his youth, Pulliat dreamed of continuing the work of the collector of La Dorée, whose direct successor and devoted follower he became. On his famous estate in Chiroubles, Pulliat gathered a colossal collection of live vine plants. Possessing a rare gift for phenomenal visual recognition of varieties from a distance, Pulliat, like his master Odart, inherited the main defect of his method — a certain vagueness and lack of precision in describing the botanical traits of the grape leaf. In 1868, he published the catalogue of the Chiroubles collection, including 406 grape varieties.

Shortly thereafter, Le Sourd, the publisher of the "Journal de viticulture pratique," suggested that Pulliat lead a grandiose project to establish a collective variety summary. The celebrated pomologist Alphonse Mas offered his publishing periodical for this purpose, and after his passing in 1876, the full burden of the work fell upon Pulliat's shoulders. The result of this campaign was the monumental three-volume "Le Vignoble" (1874–1879), containing detailed characteristics and colored chromolithographs of 288 grape varieties. This summary became an essential monument of the era, though clear omissions occurred — for instance, the authors detailed rare American vines like Clinton, but completely forgot to include Aramon, which at that time provided a colossal mass of French wines.

The Phylloxera Crisis and the Life-Saving Restructuring into American Rootstocks

In 1865, a troubling spot of vine wilting was noticed in the south of France, in the Rhone valley, rapidly expanding into a catastrophe — the invasion of phylloxera (Phylloxera vastatrix), discovered in 1868. The long-established viticulture of Europe was threatened with complete destruction. During this tragic period, theoretical study of the European grape Vitis vinifera was hastily suspended. All forces of science, including Pulliat, Planchon, and Robin, were thrown into establishing the journal "The American Vine" (La Vigne américaine) and the emergency study of wild American vine species.

When the life-saving method — grafting European noble scions onto resistant American rootstocks — was definitively proven, the ampelography of the European grape experienced its rebirth. In 1873, at the World Exhibition in Vienna, on the initiative of Hermann Goethe, the International Ampelographical Commission was established, uniting titans of science from France (Pulliat, Tochon), Germany (Blankenhorn, Carl Bronner), Austria (Babo), and Italy (di Rovasenda). The Commission set a goal to establish a single universal catalogue of grape varieties and clean out false synonyms. Although due to financial problems and the reluctance of the French government to subsidize the sessions, the commission dissolved after 1882, it laid a firm international foundation. Victor Pulliat returned to the ancient French vines, reworking his catalogue into the foundational dictionary "A Thousand Varieties of Vines" (1888), and the centuries-long track of science was concluded by Durand, Pulliat's successor to the chair at Écully, who recorded precise botanical profiles of the fine Burgundian vines of the Pinot group.