Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1007939
78 WINES&VINES August 2018 GRAPEGROWING WINE EAST I t's a curious fact that the wine world, from producers to consumers, divides its cultivars into "hybrids" (or interspecific hybrids) and vinifera. We don't hear about hybrid apples or strawberries, so why do we insist upon mak- ing this distinction for wine grapes? This classification, of course, dates back to the phylloxera crisis in the mid-1800s, when panicked producers turned to both grape breeding and grafting to rescue the European wine industry. From the 1870s on, European grape breeders crossed vinifera cultivars with several American Vitis species to produce what became known as the "French-American Hybrids." The success of this effort eventually resulted in 400,000 hectares (a little less than 1 million acres) under production in France. But the wine quality of some of the French-American hybrids proved to be disappointing, compared to traditional 100% V. vinifera cultivars. Early efforts used lower-quality vinifera parents such as Aramon (a widely planted bulk wine variety) rather than more elite varieties as parents. This helped Is Europe Starting to Embrace Hybrid Wine Grapes? Need to reduce pesticide use, better hybrid quality and disease resistance sparking renewed interest By Tim Martinson and Bruce Reisch Floreal is one of four new disease resistant variet- ies released by Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). It has two powdery mildew (Run1 + Ren3) and two downy mildew (RPV1 and RPV3) resistance genes. © INRA – C. SCHNEIDER (USED BY PERMISSION)