> Spelt was an important staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times; it now survives as a relict crop in Central Europe and northern Spain, and has also found a new market as a 'health food'.
I kept seeing somewhere for a while that Ohio based grape varieties are used for the root stock now used, but I can't find this anywhere now. Perhaps it isn't accurate.
I was actually just talking to a coworker last week about this, and he told me that modern rootstock almost entirely comes from Grayson County, Texas (a.k.a. the Sherman-Denison MSA, just north of the Dallas area).
Interestingly enough, a few weeks ago I had a Riesling from Washington that had "100% vinifera rootstock" prominently printed on the label. Not every part of the world got hit by phylloxera. I understand that some parts of South America (either Argentina or Chile, I can't remember) were spared as well.
At a wine seminar I attended a few years ago we primarily had wine from Bethlehem and the general Palestine region. The importer told us that the wine culture there is some thousand years old (which of course it is, at least there is a tradition to turn water to wine ;-)); but he also said that some grape farmers are growing grapes [again] that are as genetically close to the grapes from said water-to-wine era as possible.
(I would love to give a citation, but couldn't find one within 2 minutes - so take this as hear-say; though the importer, which is a good friend of a good friend, seemed to be not the kind of person to make this up)
It is a pity to see you being voted down, since the use of pesticides in the wine industry (in volumes which exceed some of the other agricultural industries that give consumers pause) has been a matter of fairly broad public concern for a few years now, see e.g. [0][1][2]
I feel fortunate that in my country, wines in the production of which pesticides were not used, are readily available and for comparable prices to the other wines. In many markets, however, consumers do not have that choice.
Same here in Montenegro. I don't know whether pesticides are used by commercial wineries, but grapes just grows naturally here with very little maintenance, not requiring any pesticides.
Most varieties of plants used for crops, fruits, flowers, etc. have been so heavily selected by us over thousands of years that they are completely artificial and would not survive long in the wild.
It does not mean that it isn't sustainable. Just that we are required.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt
> Spelt was an important staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times; it now survives as a relict crop in Central Europe and northern Spain, and has also found a new market as a 'health food'.