RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Preliminary Study of Ancient DNA from a 215-year-old Grapevine Herbarium JF American Journal of Enology and Viticulture JO Am J Enol Vitic. FD American Society for Enology and Viticulture SP ajev.2019.19005 DO 10.5344/ajev.2019.19005 A1 Pilar Gago A1 Valérie Laucou A1 José Luís Santiago A1 Susana Boso A1 Thierry Lacombe A1 Mauricio Velayos A1 Delphine Legrand A1 Jean-Michel Boursiquot A1 María-Carmen Martínez YR 2019 UL http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2019/07/26/ajev.2019.19005.abstract AB Simón de Rojas Clemente y Rubio (1777-1827) is considered the father of modern ampelography. He developed the first scientific method for describing grapevine varieties through the examination of material he himself collected in Andalusia between 1802 and 1804. The Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid conserves the material he collected and preserved (leaves and shoots). This herbarium, the oldest of all grapevine variety herbaria, is a treasure chest for ampelographic and other studies and provides unique insight into early 19th century (the pre-phylloxera era) grapevine cultivation. The present work reports a DNA extraction protocol and a redefining of the SSRs primers routinely used in grapevine characterization that allowed successful amplification of the ancient DNA extracted from Clemente's herborized material.