Ep 443: French-American Hybrid Grapes -- The Lowdown

<p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>There are many parts of European and American cultures that have intermingled, some quite successfully, but the jury is still out on whether the vitis vinifera and the American vitis species have created something truly special and lasting. In this show, we break down European-American grapevine hybrids – what they are, why they are more important to the conversation today, their history, how they are made and what some of the more popular and more successful grapes are. We wrap with a conversation of the challenges these grapes face and I give my view on what I think the role of hybrids will be in the future.<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --></p> <p><!-- wp:create-block/libsyn-podcasting-block --></p> <div class="wp-block-create-block-libsyn-podcasting-block"> <div class="libsyn-shortcode"> </div> </div> <p><!-- /wp:create-block/libsyn-podcasting-block --></p> <p><!-- wp:paragraph {"align":"center"} --></p> <p class="has-text-align-center" style="text-align: center;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"><img style= "margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block;" src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/45638/grapebreeding.jpeg" alt="" width="202" height="198" /><span style= "font-size: 8pt;"><em>Photo (c) Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences</em></span></span></p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --></p> <p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Here are the show notes:</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --></p> <p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p><strong>What are hybrids?</strong></p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --></p> <p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>For wine purposes, hybrids are grapes created by crossing two or more <em>vitis</em> species – the European species of grapevine, Vitis vinifera, with any number of native North American grapes. The goal of hybrids is to select for specific, superior traits in each of the grapes to create something that will yield a great wine that will survive in challenging vineyard conditions. They were specifically creat