A grape variety native to a specific region or place. Autochthonous grapes are well suited to their terroir, having evolved over millennia to thrive at the region’s latitude, altitude, soils, and mesoclimate. Climate change threatens this suitability to place.
Autochthonous grapes might also be referred to as local, native, or indigenous. The Italians say autoctono, and the French autochtone.
Synonyms:
native, indigenous, local, autoctono (Italian), autochthone (French)
