I wonder if they should account for evolutionary adaptions in the grape plants. This article doesn't seem to touch on that but it seems like a species of plant could change a lot over 650 years!
In fact, Pinot Noir that is grown in Beaune (in Burgundy) talked about in this article is one of the oldest selections and might go back as far Roman times.
The Pinot Noir vines grown by the millions around the world are literally the same individual, cloned for probably 1200 years.
There are new grape varieties being bred all the time (including by myself), including ones with crosses with American Vitis species that are far better adapted for newer fungal pathogens and weather conditions. And not just bred, crosses (inter and intra specific) happen in the wild, too.
But in general they are not permitted in European viniculture, which is very conservative and has laws mandating specific varieties for specific regions, and even forbids genetics from "non-noble" species. In fact even when European breeding programs produce new varieties with inter-specific crosses, they still pretend to be "functionally" pure vinifera, just to get around laws written a century ago.
Growers will pick based on a whole number of parameters. Soil pH and moisture being two important ones. Also degree of phyloxxera threat, etc.
Given what's happening with climate, etc. I doubt growers would go for accelerating ripening. Pinot is actually already a fairly early ripening variety for vinifera, usually early October or even late September in my climate (southern Ontario).
Dunno, maybe it's the nuclear tests, but I'm a bit skeptical to that explanation.
For a striking example, look at the changes in chickens since the 1950s.
Or the chicken
https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/2/6875031/chickens-breedi...
Some people disagree with this, but for more information look at https://imgur.com/a/zN8Kv
Clock faces are always flat surfaces- wall clocks, wrist watches, sun dials, etc. The gears and hands require rigid, flat surfaces.
If you're going to put a normal item in a surrealist painting, and choose a clock, making it a melting clock is essentially an obvious choice.
Ive seen a similar pattern before in a watermelon before too, and it was in a small home grown watermelon, the only one of many but all from the same seed pack. Although I don't remember the specific growing conditions to say what could have been the cause, it did certainly seem under developed compared to its peers. It got picked because it was obviously not growing any more and would have been at risk of rotting in the dirt if we just let it sit there forever doing nothing for another month.
On the other hand, new fruit varieties are bred all the time. Human breeding programs can produce huge variations in a few decades. I have pluot trees that are hybrid species developed very recently.
And think: 650 years ago, Europeans barely even heard of the tomato and potato!
Human pressure on agriculture can both speed things up and slow them waaay down.