Hybrid Grapes Make Wine Growing Possible Almost ANYWHERE | The Wine Break Podcast #92

The Wine Break

I came across this awesome thing when I was researching Canadian wine. Canada's wine scene is quite awesome, by the way. If you haven't already learned about it, be sure to check that one out. You're missing out if you aren't paying attention to wine in Canada. But anyway, I learned about hybrid grapes and that's what I'm going to talk about today. So strap in. But before you do, grab some wine if you don't have it already. And then strap in.
So here are some sciencey terms. Warning. Sciency terms incoming. It's going to be fast. So the grapes most people are familiar with come from Vitis vinifera. That's the European species of grapevines. But hybrid wines come from crossing those vines with Vitis riparia or Vitis labrusca vines, which are American. So they make a new type of vine. The idea was to make the vines more resistant, durable, etc. Protection from insects, diseases, weather, all that stuff.
That part was successful, but in Europe they weren't super popular and were actually banned in a lot of regions. They didn't quite match up to the Vitis vinifera in terms of flavors, structure, tannins, acid, etc. And today there still aren't tons of these planted, but they are starting to gain popularity. Even in Bordeaux they're starting to accept them.
So there are definitely some possibilities there. Like I already said, hybrid grapes are being utilized in Canada and they're also being grown in the Northeast US, like in New York and Vermont.
There's a great list on this Wine Enthusiast article that I'll link of some of the popular hybrid grapes out there. There are actually more white ones than red. Very interesting. I honestly hadn't heard of pretty much any of these. One of the best names I saw was a white wine called Chardonel. Have you ever heard of this one? It's a cross of Seyval Blanc (which is a hybrid itself) and Chardonnay. Another cool one is Traminette, which crosses Gewürztraminer and another hybrid.
For the red hybrids they list Baco Noir. This one actually came from France. And it's used in Armagnac! I love a little Armagnac! Another one that caught my eye was Chambourcin. It looks really good, honestly. I going to have to track some of this down. And learn how to pronounce Chambourcin.
And that's all I have today! Hopefully you find this as interesting as I do. This is awesome stuff. The next time you see a varietal you're not familiar with, maybe it's because it's a hybrid? Maybe it's not. But maybe it is. You never know. At least you know hybrids are out there. Cheers!
Show notes:
https://www.winemag.com/2020/05/21/hybrid-wine-grapes-guide/