The Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige (IASMA), now „Fondazione Edmund Mach“,[1] is an agrarian institution and wine academy located in Trentino in north-east Italy. It was founded in 1874, when the Tyrolean Diet at Innsbruck[2] decided to open an agrarian school and research station at San Michele all’Adige, with the aim of improving agricultural practice in Tyrol. The lombardo-venetian enologist Edmund Mach was the academy's first director and the institute developed a reputation for work in viticulture and enology.[3][4]
Its remit today is to provide agricultural education, training and consultancy, and to conduct research and experimentation with the aim of "promoting cultural and socio-economic growth in the agricultural sector and at developing the forestry and agro-alimentary systems, with particular regard for the environment and the safeguard of the territory of the Trentino region".[4] There is also a farm, devoted to grape and apple production, a wine cellar and a distillery.[5]
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The Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige is home of Italy's most extensive ampelographic collection of grape specimens including both indigenous Italian varieties as well as grapes varieties from around the world. The academy conduct wide scale research into various areas of interest to Italian viticulture and winemaking including cataloging the DNA profile and genomic of grape varieties, studying the analysis of wine aromas and flavors as well the role of phenolic compounds in wine.[3]
In the early 21st century, DNA research by José Vouillamoz of the Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige discovered that ancestors of Sangiovese are most likely the Tuscan grape Ciliegiolo and southern Italian grape Calabrese Montenuovo.[6]