Vitis vinifera, the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran.

The earliest evidence of domesticated grapes has been found at Gadachrili Gora, near the village of Imiri, Marneuli Municipality, in southeastern Georgia; carbon-dating points to the date of about 6000 BC.

[9] The first written accounts of grapes and wine can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian text from the 3rd millennium BC.

There are also numerous hieroglyphic references from ancient Egypt, according to which wine was reserved exclusively for priests, state functionaries and the pharaoh.

[14] Hesiod in his Works and Days gives detailed descriptions of grape harvests and wine making techniques, and there are also many references in Homer.

Greek colonists then introduced these practices in their colonies, especially in southern Italy (Magna Graecia), which was even known as Enotria due to its propitious climate.

[citation needed] During the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the long crisis of the Roman Empire generated instability in the countryside which led to a reduction of viticulture in general, which was mainly sustained only close to towns and cities and along coastlines.

[16][17] Grape growing was a significant economic activity in the Middle east up to the 7th century, when the expansion of Islam caused it to decline.

In North America it formed hybrids with native species from the genus Vitis; some of these were intentional hybrids created to combat phylloxera, an insect pest which affected the European grapevine to a much greater extent than North American ones and in fact managed to devastate European wine production in a matter of years.

[19] In the second half of the 20th century there was a shift in attitude in viticulture from traditional techniques to the scientific method based on fields such as microbiology, chemistry and ampelography.

A branch consists of several internodes separated by knots, which grow the leaves, flowers, tendrils and between-core and where to train future buds.

The fruit is a berry, known as a grape that is ovoid or globular, dark blue or greenish, usually 2-locular with 5 seeds; in the wild species it is 6 mm (0.24 in) diameter and ripens dark purple to blackish with a pale wax bloom; in cultivated plants it is usually much larger, up to 3 cm (1.2 in) long, and can be green, red, or purple (black).

[25] In Europe, Vitis vinifera is concentrated in the central and southern regions; in Asia, in the western regions such as Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and in China; in Africa, along the northern Mediterranean coast and in South Africa; in North America, in California and also other areas like Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington state, British Columbia, Ontario and Québec; in South America in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Brazil; and in Oceania in Australia and New Zealand.

Use of grapes is known to date back to Neolithic times, following the discovery in 1996 of 7,000-year-old wine storage jars in present-day northern Iran.

Vitis vinifera cultivation and winemaking in China began during the Han dynasty in the 2nd century[27] with the importation of the species from Ta-Yuan.

[28] In traditional medicine of India V. vinifera is used in prescriptions for cough, respiratory tract catarrh, subacute cases of enlarged liver and spleen, as well as in alcohol-based tonics (Aasavs).

Ripe grapes were used for the treatment of cancer, cholera, smallpox, nausea, skin and eye infections as well as kidney and liver diseases.

[31][32] Grapevine leaves are filled with minced meat (such as lamb, pork or beef), rice and onions in the making of Balkan traditional dolma.

Originally bred in France, it thrives in a range of climates from hot and dry, to cool moist and subtropical, with different soil types benefitting the plant.

Identification of genes underlying phenological variation in grape may help to maintain consistent yield of particular varieties in future climatic conditions.

Grapevine annual growth cycles begin in spring with bud break initiated by consistent day time temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius.

A rise in leaf temperatures may alter ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo) relationship with carbon dioxide and oxygen which will also affect the plants' photosynthesis capabilities.

[50] It is estimated that the northern boundary of European viticulture will shift north 10 to 30 kilometres (6.2 to 18.6 mi) per decade up to 2020 with a doubling of this rate predicted between 2020 and 2050.

[56] Anthocyanins can be found in the skin of the berries, hydroxycinnamic acids in the pulp and condensed tannins of the proanthocyanidins type in the seeds.