Carole Meredith

"... I started to contact other grape geneticists in labs all over the world—initially 10 or 15 different research groups in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa—and proposed that we form a consortium to develop these s. Each lab would try to develop a few markers and then contribute those markers to the general pool that we would share. We formed the . After a couple of years we had developed several hundred markers. We were able to make some interesting discoveries by just using a couple of dozen markers, because that is enough to prove statistically whether one variety is related to another variety. But once several hundred markers existed it was then possible to develop a of grape, a project that was really just starting around the time that I retired from . The highlight of my career was using these s to reveal genetic relationships among classic s and to then elucidate from that something about the ."

"With potent new analysis tools, researchers could capture a species’ unique genetic fingerprint to trace its origins and evolutionary history. Once s for grapes became available, Meredith and her team at quickly harnessed the power of DNA fingerprinting to identify classic vinifera varieties and resolve longstanding questions about their murky history. Meredith and grad student John Bowers even surprised themselves in 1996 by revealing a mixed heritage of white () and red () grapes for . And in what many call her crowning achievement, Meredith—whose place in the wine pantheon was secured by a 2009 induction into the Vintners Hall of Fame—confirmed that , long claimed California’s “historic” native, is the genetic twin of the nearly extinct Crljenak Kastelanski grape variety, once grown along ’s n Coast."

"Methods to introduce s, either from or other organisms, into existing are now well-established and permit the targeted modification of existing grape cultivars. This may provide a means to reduce disease losses and usage in classic cultivars without otherwise changing their wine attributes."