BOSTON — Deciphering the complete genome of the Pinot noir grape, among the first to be cultivated by man, offers the chance to breed new nuances into some of the world’s most complex wines, scientists said.

Researchers from France and Italy found 13 genes that are responsible for the Pinot noir wine’s distinctive flavors, according to a study released Sunday by the journal Nature. Turning them on and off may give vintners the ability to add and subtract key characteristics from their products, said Jean Weissenbach, director of Genoscope, France’s national gene sequencing center in Evry, which helped perform the study.

“It’s a possibility,” Mr. Weissenbach said in a telephone interview. “For a long time, man has been trying to select flavors with classical means. We’ll have to see if we can do better than what has been done.”

The most recent finding will help vintners better understand the taste and health of all grapes, said Carole Meredith, an emeritus professor of viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis. The variety is one of the world’s oldest, along with Chenin blanc, said Ms. Meredith, whose work involved using molecular markers to trace the genetic origins of classic varieties such as Syrah, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

“This will mean something to grape geneticists in all countries,” Ms. Meredith, who now makes her own wine at the Lagier Meredith Vineyard in Napa, Calif., said in a telephone interview. “It will help researchers understand how grapes respond to different environments, temperatures, soil characteristics, and environmental stresses.”

A key ingredient in the 2004 movie “Sideways,” Pinot noir grapes can be “complex, effusive, and difficult to grow,” according to the Web site of the Wine Institute, an industry group.

Genes that make molecules called tannins and terpenes, which add flavor and aroma to wine, were amplified in the grape genome, the scientists found in the study. The full set of DNA may one day offer vintners the chance to trace flavors to individual genes and design wines with desired or new tastes, Ms. Meredith said.

“Sideways” set off a frenzy of interest in Pinot noir, as sales of Pinot wines jumped 18% in the eight months after the movie was released compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Web site of the Wine Institute, a San Francisco-based industry group. The main character is a failed writer, Miles Raymond (played by actor Paul Giamatti), who described his fascination with the variety, according to a transcript on the Web site of IMDb, the Internet Movie Database.

“Only someone who really takes the time to understand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression,” Raymond says in a soliloquy that helps set the psychological tone of the Oscar-winning movie. “Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they’re just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and … ancient on the planet.”

Pinot noir is the main grape variety used in red wines from France’s Burgundy region.

The research may also help vineyards and companies who sold about $28 billion worth of wine in America last year grow tastier grapes that can beat mildew, fungus, and other pests that can wipe out crops, the researchers said.

Breeding healthy grapes with new flavors that can survive outbreaks of disease is a constant worry for vineyard owners, said Rodney Schatz, owner of the 1,000-acre Peltier Station Winery in Lodi, Calif.

“Fighting disease is part of the wine-growing process,” said Mr. Schatz, who wasn’t involved in the research, in an August 23 telephone interview. “I could see the technology as being beneficial.”

Scientists in France and Italy chose to work on grapes, the first fruit crop plant to be sequenced, because of their role in society and economic importance to both countries, Genoscope’s Mr. Weissenbach said.

Like the Human Genome Project, which sequenced the complete code of human DNA, the research was aimed at finding genes that contribute to disease susceptibility in grapes. While none were found in the study, the findings create an infrastructure for detecting such genes, he said.

Viticulturists are constantly developing new vines to maximize fruit flavor and resist disease, said Peltier Station’s Mr. Schatz. A relatively new strain of Cabernet Sauvignon, called 337, has been used to make a number of distinctive wines, he said.