In winegrowing, it refers to the young vine that has germinated from a planted grape. The germination of a seedling can occur independently in nature or be deliberately induced by humans. In contrast to a genetically identical clone, which arises from Vegetative Propagation as a cutting (young plant), seedlings produced from generative or sexual propagation are fundamentally different Genotype. The grapevine is characterized by extreme Heterozygosity compared to other plant groups (for example, trees) and cannot be propagated true to variety through seeds (grape seeds).
The grape seeds carry the paternal genes transferred during fertilization. However, for the appearance and varietal typical of the grape, it is completely irrelevant which father variety was involved in the fertilization. They correspond 100% to the species of the mother variety regardless. A seedling always exhibits a recombination of the traits inherited from the parents, leading to a new grape variety. The up to five (rarely six) seeds in a grape can yield very different Variation. Therefore, seedlings are not used for the replanting of vineyards but are only of interest in the breeding of new grape varieties.
![]()
In the past, you needed a wealth of encyclopaedias and specialist literature to keep up to date in your vinophile professional life. Today, Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one of my best helpers and can rightly be called the "bible of wine knowledge".
Prof. Dr. Walter Kutscher
Lehrgangsleiter Sommelierausbildung WIFI-Wien