Most grape breeders are aware of this, but it doesn't feel comfortable. That's the socio-political or cultural side intruding on our thoughts.
As breeders, we should try to differentiate the scientific and cultural, though. Vinifera means 'European commercial grape' and European's have every right to define what specific ancestry provide membership in that socio-political class. If Canadians want to think of themselves as 'European', and use the same definition for vinifera, it is equally logical.
Logical, but delightfully inconsistent. Folks in Germany, who have an interest in doing things differently than France, call the variety 'Regent' vinifera. Folks in Canada, who have an interest in doing things like they are done in France, don't. In fact, sales of 'Regent' grapes are banned in Canada.
In general, I try to avoid using the term 'vinifera' entirely. When the term comes to mind, I just replace it with 'European commercial grape'. Everyone knows what I mean, and there is no confusion between the scientific and socio-political. If we want to breed a healthy, good tasting grape for the region we live in, the term 'vinifera' confuses our efforts.
Of course, once you want to sell the results of your breeding, the socio-political is impossible to avoid. Participating in the world of commerce requires one to live with certain logical impossibilities.
Ref: "A phylogenetic analysis of the grape genus (Vitis L.) reveals broad reticulation and concurrent diversification during neogene and quaternary climate change" Yizhen Wan,et. al.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3750556/
Should clarify, Regen is not banned for sale in Canada. It's banned for labelling as a "Quality" grape in the VQA Ontario system. Wine can be made and sold with it and many other unlisted grapes, but they are not allowed to call themselves VQA, put "Ontario" or "Canada" anywhere on the label, get restricted distribution possibilities, and are taxed at a higher rate.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a bit more two it than that, these are clearly separate species and are all very different from vinifera.
ReplyDeleteThe chart isn't right, vinifera is on a branch all of its own and closest to the Asian species (including amurensis and coignetiae) to which it is distantly related, although not on the same branch as them.
Californica forms an intermediate branch between the species in the US and the Asian Species.
Labrusca is very far removed from vinifera and passes on so many negative traits in breeding that it is should be abandoned in wine grape breeding at least. Breeders should use French hybrids, riparia, rupestris, aestivalis and longii that combine better with vinifera and carry on loss objectionable flavours. Whilst good varieties have been made from these species and vinifera, none really exist with a large percentage of Labrusca.
With aestivalis you have Norton, with riparia you have Frontenac, with rupestris you have Seyval, with the French hybrids which are a mixture of species, usually with very low levels or no labrusca you have many Seibel varieties such as Aurora, Seyval, Cascade, etc and many new varieties based on them and riparia (to increase hardiness) such as Marquette and L'Acadie blanc.
With labrusca / vinifera crosses you have such grapes as Isabell...
The best strategy for getting vinifera-quality into hybrid grapes is to avoid anything but a negligible percentage of labrusca in the ancestry and to breed with French hybrids and riparia. Riparia has its faults, but it can still produce decent varieties at least.
Hello APK. Thank you for commenting.
ReplyDelete>The chart isn't right...
The chart is highly simplified, but the basic insight comes straight out of DNA marker work by Wang, et. al. in 'A phylogenetic analysis of the grape genus (Vitis L.)." Wang, et. al., writes "Fitch Parsimony identified North America as the origin of the most recent common ancestor of extant Vitis species." He goes on to conclude "Phylogenetic patterns suggested origination of the genus in North America, fragmentation of an ancestral range during the Miocene, formation of extant species in the late Miocene-Pleistocene, and differentiation of species in the context of Pliocene-Quaternary tectonic and climatic change."
This seems a controversial claim, but I haven't seen it contradicted.
>The best strategy for getting vinifera-quality into hybrid grapes
>is to avoid anything but a negligible percentage of labrusca...
I agree and would go further. Why not keep descendents of Jaeger-70 out of the breeding program? Jaeger-70 (Munson) is probably 50% lincecumii from Southern Missouri or Northern Oklahoma. I've tasted wild lincecumii from that area, and it has a deep smoky twang.
Wild vines in Texas such as cinerea and rupestris don't have this issue, and they are perfectly suited for the long summers and lingering chance of frost until early May. Outside of rootstock research, few seem to have done much with wild Texas grapes, probably because they generally require more heat than anyone outside of Texas has available. That's not a problem I face.
>Riparia has its faults, but it can still produce decent varieties ...
I have nothing against riparia, but it isn't suited climatically to Texas. I'm very interested in its cousin, rupestris, though.
Mark
I don't know about excluding lincecumii, a lot of the French hybrids have it and Jaeger 70 further back. Lincecumii ancestry is probably diluted enough in most French hybrids as not to pose any flavour problems.
DeleteRupestris is undervalued in my opinion. Seyval is around 30 or 40% rupestris if I remember right, not sure if it's suitable for Texas though, it's pretty early, ripens in England and isn't perfectly clean here.
I haven't looked much at cinerea, I don't personally know much about it.
Certainly the southern US species can offer us more than labrusca anyway, and amurensis for that matter. It makes sense to use more resistant southern species that hybridize with vinifera better than keep wasting our time with labrusca.
For the north, these southern species with vinifera hybrids could be crossed with riparia as the old French hybrids have been.
I don't know if I'd look at pure species, I'd probably just look into breeding with French hybrids myself.