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WineEast grapegrowing in the eastern U.S., and especially in the Great Lakes region, include frequency and severity of winter cold episodes, sufficient length of the growing season and its heat unit accumulation, and frequency of damaging spring freeze episodes. In the Great Lakes region, determination of suitability for cultivation of wine grapes mainly depends on winter cold events and disease pressure. Winter cold events are quite variable through the eastern U.S., with the result that there is a wide distribution of species cultivated (Table 1) and a ratio between hybrids (cold hardy) and vinifera (cold sensitive) that shows viticultural growing conditions favorable for different species (Figure 2). State Percentage (%) Michigan American Hybrid Vinifera 750 15% 82% 3% 14,200 88% 4.5% 7.5% 750 12% 88% 0% 1750 14% 78% 8% 37,050 75% 11% 14% 2,000 69% 14% 11% 13,600 81% 10% 9% 500 2% 98% 0% Minnesota Missouri New York Ohio Pennsylvania Wisconsin Table 1. Acres of grapes in key grapegrowing states in the eastern United States are broken down into relative percentage of native, hybrid and vinifera cultivars. Expanded from USDANASS (2010). American varieties are mostly used for non-fermented grape juice production. 9:47 AM Page 1 OA K A LT E R N AT I V E S WINER 136 W in e s & V i ne s JANUARY 20 14 - Y HOSE AOAC Member - chemist@easternwinelabs.com - Cell 609-668-2854 YEAST & ENZYMES S T E R I L E F I LT R AT I O N WWW.EASTERNWINELABS.COM - C R U S H PA D E Q U I P M E N T Serving the Analytical needs of East Coast Wineries - B E CO PA D - EASTERN WINE LABS Ph 609-859-4302 Grafting for phylloxera The story of phylloxera recently was well documented by Gale (2010), and it is a fascinating story of good and bad science coupled with examples of national chauvinism. Leo Laliman of Bordeaux, France, reputedly observed that phylloxera did not destroy Vitis aestivalis Michaux vines, and he argued that vine and insect had co-existed in their native habitat (Pongracz, 1988). That suggested that the vines possessed some characteristic Acres Illinois Figure 1. This figure depicts the percentage increase of land dedicated to grapes from 1970 to 2010 in key grapegrowing states as determined by USDA-NASS (2010). EasternWineLab_Mar09.qxp 1/22/09 mildew, downy mildew and black rot—and, most notably, the grape root and leaf aphid phylloxera. The impact of these pests was devastating, and thousands of acres of vineyards were destroyed. Pre-hybrid history Although there is considerable evidence that most European cultivars now called Vitis vinifera are actually hybrids of vinifera and the wild native species V. sylvestris, we will focus on the wider-based hybrids resulting from vinifera and non-European species. In the 18th and 19th centuries, transport of Vitis plant material between North America and Europe (primarily France) led to two undesired results: The vinifera vines transported to North America quickly died, and European viticulture suffered the introduction of serious grapevine pests for which the native European vines (Vitis vinifera) possessed no resistance. Among these introduced pests were the fungal diseases powdery