The grapes by Pierre-Joseph Redouté

A hundred watercolors of French grape varieties created by the illustrious Pierre-Joseph Redouté were found at the Academy of Agriculture. They bear witness to the birth of a wine science. In the early 19th century, the Minister of the Interior Jean-Antoine Chaptal asked Pierre-Joseph Redouté, known for his paintings of roses at the Château de Malmaison, to depict all French grape varieties gathered in a collection at the Jardin du Luxembourg. Eighty-three watercolors on vellum of vine varieties have reached us. They are being published for the first time and accompanied by an explanatory text from one of the greatest French ampelographers, Jean-Michel Boursiquot. These plates have an incomparable heritage value. They were created by the most famous botanical illustrators of the time, foremost among them Pierre-Joseph Redouté, marking a highly symbolic date in the history of French viticulture: the beginnings of ampelography. In an era of renewed interest in indigenous grape varieties and the many questions raised by climate change, the vellum documents testify to the past diversity in a country where today 95% of wine production is based on 40 varieties. Beyond the reproduction of these plates, the history of wine and vineyards is recounted, showing how concerns about wine quality arose as early as the 19th century. The book concludes with a scientific perspective on the future of vineyards in the 21st century.