Note that there is only one 'vinifera' on the list. It has survived in Rock House vineyard. It is 30' higher and 200' further away from the river. The river houses all the PD vectors..
Sunday, December 22, 2013
What kind of vine likes growing here?
This is based on my 2013 review. The Mills Vineyard has 163 vines at least 3' tall.
Note that there is only one 'vinifera' on the list. It has survived in Rock House vineyard. It is 30' higher and 200' further away from the river. The river houses all the PD vectors..
Note that there is only one 'vinifera' on the list. It has survived in Rock House vineyard. It is 30' higher and 200' further away from the river. The river houses all the PD vectors..
Friday, December 20, 2013
Major Long's sand dune grapes
This topic has been of some interest on the Grape Breeders' list. Members of Major Stephen Long's 1820 expedition wrote the following about what we now call Beaver Dunes park in Oklahoma ('A' in the below map). This is on the edge of what I call 'local'. Beaver Dunes park is a 6 hour drive north of me, in the Oklahoma panhandle. Put another way, it is 27 miles north of the Texas state line.
"On examination we found these hillocks had been produced, exclusively by the agency of the grape vines arresting the sand, as it was borne along by the wind, until such quantities had been accumulated as to bury every part of the plant except the ends of the branches. Many of these were so loaded with fruit, as to present nothing to the eye but a series of clusters so closely arranged as to conceal every part of the stem. The fruit of these vines is incomparably finer than that of any other, either native or exotic, which we have met with n the United States."
What was this 'incomparably finer' grape? Are there specimen closer to home that might provide pollen?
Millardet's Histoire des principales variétés et espèces de vignes d'origine américaine (1885), and Viala's Une Mission Viticole en Amerique (1888) suggest the vines were hybrids of rupestris (rock grape) and riparia (river grape). This makes some intuitive sense. Mix a rock grape and a river grape and you get a sand-dune grape.
T.V. Munson disagreed. He calls the Long expedition grapes 'Longii', for Major Long. Munson's view seems to have been accepted, though the name got switched to 'acerifolia'. Munson pointedly declared in 'Foundations' (1909), "In extended journeys in its native region, the writer has never seen V. rupestris or V. candicans except the latter along its eastern border of distribution. No other species has been seen by me in that large area where it is so abundant, save frequently V. Doaniana."
A 2013 presentation by Greg,. Klein, Bogler, Jiménez, and Miller tittled." Morphometric analysis of leafvariation in three North American grape species (Vitis acerifolia, V. riparia, and V. rupestris)" seems to take a third view. Reviewing large collections of specimen, the authors discover there are no morphometric discontinuities.
Does 'no morphometric discontinuities' mean Riparia, Rupestris and Acerifolia are variants on a single species?
"On examination we found these hillocks had been produced, exclusively by the agency of the grape vines arresting the sand, as it was borne along by the wind, until such quantities had been accumulated as to bury every part of the plant except the ends of the branches. Many of these were so loaded with fruit, as to present nothing to the eye but a series of clusters so closely arranged as to conceal every part of the stem. The fruit of these vines is incomparably finer than that of any other, either native or exotic, which we have met with n the United States."
What was this 'incomparably finer' grape? Are there specimen closer to home that might provide pollen?
Millardet's Histoire des principales variétés et espèces de vignes d'origine américaine (1885), and Viala's Une Mission Viticole en Amerique (1888) suggest the vines were hybrids of rupestris (rock grape) and riparia (river grape). This makes some intuitive sense. Mix a rock grape and a river grape and you get a sand-dune grape.
T.V. Munson disagreed. He calls the Long expedition grapes 'Longii', for Major Long. Munson's view seems to have been accepted, though the name got switched to 'acerifolia'. Munson pointedly declared in 'Foundations' (1909), "In extended journeys in its native region, the writer has never seen V. rupestris or V. candicans except the latter along its eastern border of distribution. No other species has been seen by me in that large area where it is so abundant, save frequently V. Doaniana."
A 2013 presentation by Greg,. Klein, Bogler, Jiménez, and Miller tittled." Morphometric analysis of leafvariation in three North American grape species (Vitis acerifolia, V. riparia, and V. rupestris)" seems to take a third view. Reviewing large collections of specimen, the authors discover there are no morphometric discontinuities.
Does 'no morphometric discontinuities' mean Riparia, Rupestris and Acerifolia are variants on a single species?
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Self sufficient 12 acre restaurant
From Businessweek:
"Damon Baehrel is making dinner out of the scrub brush next
to his blacktop driveway. First he takes some sumac leaves and steeps
them to make tea. Then he adds liquefied wild violet stems cut from his
yard, as well as a dozen varieties of grapes cultivated in his garden.
He freezes all of this together and serves it on a spoon as one
refreshing bite. Baehrel calls it sumac-flavored ice slush and uses it
as a palate-cleanser during the 15-course meal he creates nightly for 18
food-obsessives. Many travel three hours from Manhattan—some even fly
in overnight—to pay $255 (before wine and tip) for the privilege of
eating in the basement of a modest clapboard home in Earlton, N.Y.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Getting to know 'Fercal'
I've got two new sets of 2007 seeds that came from Rich's 'Fercal' vine. They have been in storage for 5 years, but I'm going to see if they germinate. One set was open-pollinated. The other was 'Fercal' x Cabernet Sauvignon. Rich seemed disappointed in 'Fercal' when he gave me the seeds. 'It turns out Fercal didn't have any Cab in it', Rich said.
I didn't know what Fercal's heritage was, and I wasn't sure I should waste my time growing this 'non-cab', so I did some research on Fercal. A friend's email quoted Texas A&M claims that Fercal was a Vinifera x Berlandieri hybrid crossed with 333 EM rootstock by Pouget and Ottenwaelter in 1983 at the INRA Viticulture Research Station at Pont de la Maye, Bordeaux, France. Dr. Charles McKinney at the University of Texas Research Vineyard at Bakersfield, Texas was responsible for bringing FerCal into the United States. According to A&M, it offers great potential for vineyards on extremely high pH soil.
I found more definitive information in a paper titled "Parentage of grapevine rootstock ‘Fercal’ finally elucidated", V. Laucou, et al. (Vitis 47 (3), 163–167 (2008)). According to the paper, Fercal was a cross of ‘B.C. n°1B’ and '31 Richter' (not 333 EM). The problem was the parentage of Fercal's mother vine, named 'B.C. n°1' in Galet's 1988 paper. Laucou's paper provides the correct maternal grand-father's name.
As Texas A&M pointed out, people thought Fercal's parents were supposed to be ‘B.C. 1 (Vitis berlandieri x Colombard) n°1’ and ‘333 E.M.’ ('Cabernet-Sauvignon' x Vitis berlandieri). This seems to have been what Pouget and Ottenwaelter wrote in 1978 about their 1959 cross. First, it seems there were two 'B.C. n°1' vines, an 'A' and a 'B'. No one knew which was the correct parent. Second, beginning under the name of ‘B.C. n°1’. Next 'isozyme analysis by Boursiquote and Parra (1992) excluded '333 EM' as a parent.
Fortunately, Laucou's team knew where the breeding took place and could narrow the possible male parents. One of the neighboring vines, 31 Richter, had leaves that looked a lot like Fercal, so 31 Richter DNA (among others) was tested and the microsatellites prove he was the daddy.
Ok, anyone else confused?
Now, turning to the mother vine, work by DE ANDRÈS et al. (2007) had proven the mom couldn't be ''B.C. n°1A'. This left ''B.C. n°1B', which was supposed to berlandieri x Colombard (Galet 1988) but preliminary DNA studies didn't confirm this. With more testing, the correct pedigree was deduced (Drum-roll):
‘B.C. n°1B’ = ‘Berlandieri Lafont n°9 x Ugni blanc (vinifera)
Ok, I thought. I have not heard good things about 'cab' as a breeding parent, Fercal is getting more interesting. Ugni blanc is the name growers use for this cultivar in Southern France. The same vine is St. Emilion in the Cognac region, where it doesn't seem to ripen completely. In Italy, it is knownas Trebbiano Bianco. It has been grown there since Roman times. The GRIN record says it is now the most cultivated white grape in France. Wikipedia says it is the second most widely planted white grape vine in the world, makes an undistinguished wine, but a good brandy. (The most widely grown vine is Thompson Seedless, aka 'Sultanina.)
Cool. Sounds like Ugni Blanc's comes from a relatively hot climate.
The other thing that caught my attention was all the talk about Berlandieri. Berlandieri is a name the potentates of taxonomy are trying to ban. The currently approved label is 'cinerea', and that's the fine I'm focused on cinerea. Rich has given me cinerea x hot-climate vinifera cross!
Berlandieri Lafont n°9 is not found in the GRIN database, but is probably cinerea. It seems that the gods of taxonomy changed their minds about berlandieri in the 1980s, and most specimens got renamed cinerea.
Rességuier n°2 is listed as Cinerea (PI 588216) in the GRIN database. It was a popular female breeding parent in France during the early 20th century. The history caught my eye, and the description implied a Texas source, so I thought 'It is time for this one to come home.' There is now a one year old cutting in the house vineyard.
Turning to Richter 31, Vitis International Variety Catalogue ( VIVC ) JKI (Institut für Rebenzüchtung Geilweilerhof - Siebeldinge) called it Berlandieri resseguier 2 x Novo Mexicana. (Novo Mexicana, aka Nuevo Mexicana, is probably Longii)
Novo-mexicana seems to be a cutting Munson sent to Ravaz (1902). Ravaz thought it was (Vitis riparia - Vitis arizonica), probably based on Munson's description. Galet (1988) thought it was (Riparia x Rupestris x Candicans). There hasn't been any microsatellite work to justify Galet's revision of Ravaz. This is not a minor issue since the original arizonica parentage may imply exceptionally strong tolerance for Xyella fastidiosa, the source of the dread Pierce's Disease.
I didn't know what Fercal's heritage was, and I wasn't sure I should waste my time growing this 'non-cab', so I did some research on Fercal. A friend's email quoted Texas A&M claims that Fercal was a Vinifera x Berlandieri hybrid crossed with 333 EM rootstock by Pouget and Ottenwaelter in 1983 at the INRA Viticulture Research Station at Pont de la Maye, Bordeaux, France. Dr. Charles McKinney at the University of Texas Research Vineyard at Bakersfield, Texas was responsible for bringing FerCal into the United States. According to A&M, it offers great potential for vineyards on extremely high pH soil.
I found more definitive information in a paper titled "Parentage of grapevine rootstock ‘Fercal’ finally elucidated", V. Laucou, et al. (Vitis 47 (3), 163–167 (2008)). According to the paper, Fercal was a cross of ‘B.C. n°1B’ and '31 Richter' (not 333 EM). The problem was the parentage of Fercal's mother vine, named 'B.C. n°1' in Galet's 1988 paper. Laucou's paper provides the correct maternal grand-father's name.
As Texas A&M pointed out, people thought Fercal's parents were supposed to be ‘B.C. 1 (Vitis berlandieri x Colombard) n°1’ and ‘333 E.M.’ ('Cabernet-Sauvignon' x Vitis berlandieri). This seems to have been what Pouget and Ottenwaelter wrote in 1978 about their 1959 cross. First, it seems there were two 'B.C. n°1' vines, an 'A' and a 'B'. No one knew which was the correct parent. Second, beginning under the name of ‘B.C. n°1’. Next 'isozyme analysis by Boursiquote and Parra (1992) excluded '333 EM' as a parent.
Fortunately, Laucou's team knew where the breeding took place and could narrow the possible male parents. One of the neighboring vines, 31 Richter, had leaves that looked a lot like Fercal, so 31 Richter DNA (among others) was tested and the microsatellites prove he was the daddy.
Ok, anyone else confused?
Now, turning to the mother vine, work by DE ANDRÈS et al. (2007) had proven the mom couldn't be ''B.C. n°1A'. This left ''B.C. n°1B', which was supposed to berlandieri x Colombard (Galet 1988) but preliminary DNA studies didn't confirm this. With more testing, the correct pedigree was deduced (Drum-roll):
‘B.C. n°1B’ = ‘Berlandieri Lafont n°9 x Ugni blanc (vinifera)
Ok, I thought. I have not heard good things about 'cab' as a breeding parent, Fercal is getting more interesting. Ugni blanc is the name growers use for this cultivar in Southern France. The same vine is St. Emilion in the Cognac region, where it doesn't seem to ripen completely. In Italy, it is knownas Trebbiano Bianco. It has been grown there since Roman times. The GRIN record says it is now the most cultivated white grape in France. Wikipedia says it is the second most widely planted white grape vine in the world, makes an undistinguished wine, but a good brandy. (The most widely grown vine is Thompson Seedless, aka 'Sultanina.)
Cool. Sounds like Ugni Blanc's comes from a relatively hot climate.
The other thing that caught my attention was all the talk about Berlandieri. Berlandieri is a name the potentates of taxonomy are trying to ban. The currently approved label is 'cinerea', and that's the fine I'm focused on cinerea. Rich has given me cinerea x hot-climate vinifera cross!
Berlandieri Lafont n°9 is not found in the GRIN database, but is probably cinerea. It seems that the gods of taxonomy changed their minds about berlandieri in the 1980s, and most specimens got renamed cinerea.
Rességuier n°2 is listed as Cinerea (PI 588216) in the GRIN database. It was a popular female breeding parent in France during the early 20th century. The history caught my eye, and the description implied a Texas source, so I thought 'It is time for this one to come home.' There is now a one year old cutting in the house vineyard.
Turning to Richter 31, Vitis International Variety Catalogue ( VIVC ) JKI (Institut für Rebenzüchtung Geilweilerhof - Siebeldinge) called it Berlandieri resseguier 2 x Novo Mexicana. (Novo Mexicana, aka Nuevo Mexicana, is probably Longii)
Novo-mexicana seems to be a cutting Munson sent to Ravaz (1902). Ravaz thought it was (Vitis riparia - Vitis arizonica), probably based on Munson's description. Galet (1988) thought it was (Riparia x Rupestris x Candicans). There hasn't been any microsatellite work to justify Galet's revision of Ravaz. This is not a minor issue since the original arizonica parentage may imply exceptionally strong tolerance for Xyella fastidiosa, the source of the dread Pierce's Disease.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Winter storm
Snow provides an opportunity to see things with new eyes.
House Vineyard:
River Vineyard
House Vineyard:
River Vineyard
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Grape and Wine Technology review in the Economist
Without going into much detail, the following is a list of technological advances described in an Economist article called "Bacchus to the future".
The article omits mention of new pesticide and fungicide sprays which are equally sought after by big vineyards. The effects of these sprays were recently described in a New York times article titled 'The year the Monarchs didn't come'.
You decide what is in your future.
Mechanical pickers made by Pellenc.
Mechanical grape destemmer and sorter made by Pellenc (puff of air to remove unwanted grapes)
VinPerfect has a screw cap with an aluminium-coated plastic liner which allows the winemaker to choose precisely how much oxygen should enter the bottle over time.
The Cilyo machine injects small quantities of the gas into a sample, determines how fast the “must” consumes it and calculates the optimal amount to avoid 'premox'.
Reverse osmosis for adjusting alcohol/water balance, removing vinegar and ethyl acetate. (WineSecrets)
To defeat forgers, Prooftag contains a serial number and unique patter ob bubbles in 'bubble seal'.
Case sensors that track temp while shipping (eProvenance)
The Coravin inserts argon while pouring so air doesn't get in.
Lynch Bages, an august Bordeaux producer, uses satelite data and soil core samples to assess what vines to grow, and where.
Fruition Sciences applies heat sensors to vine branches to measure how fast sap flows through them, and thus how much water is transpiring through the plant. The sensors wirelessly transmit the data every 15 minutes, and send an alert if irrigation is needed.
Catena Zapata, an Argentine winery, is putting thermometers on roots to study the effect of their temperature on grape development.
At Ducru-Beaucaillou in Bordeaux, the winemaker sends tractors to calculate the concentration of anthocyanins, a valuable antioxidant.
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear-magnetic resonance spectroscopy,are used by Axel Marchal of the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ISVV) in Bordeaux.
The article omits mention of new pesticide and fungicide sprays which are equally sought after by big vineyards. The effects of these sprays were recently described in a New York times article titled 'The year the Monarchs didn't come'.
You decide what is in your future.
Mechanical pickers made by Pellenc.
Mechanical grape destemmer and sorter made by Pellenc (puff of air to remove unwanted grapes)
VinPerfect has a screw cap with an aluminium-coated plastic liner which allows the winemaker to choose precisely how much oxygen should enter the bottle over time.
The Cilyo machine injects small quantities of the gas into a sample, determines how fast the “must” consumes it and calculates the optimal amount to avoid 'premox'.
Reverse osmosis for adjusting alcohol/water balance, removing vinegar and ethyl acetate. (WineSecrets)
To defeat forgers, Prooftag contains a serial number and unique patter ob bubbles in 'bubble seal'.
Case sensors that track temp while shipping (eProvenance)
The Coravin inserts argon while pouring so air doesn't get in.
Lynch Bages, an august Bordeaux producer, uses satelite data and soil core samples to assess what vines to grow, and where.
Fruition Sciences applies heat sensors to vine branches to measure how fast sap flows through them, and thus how much water is transpiring through the plant. The sensors wirelessly transmit the data every 15 minutes, and send an alert if irrigation is needed.
Catena Zapata, an Argentine winery, is putting thermometers on roots to study the effect of their temperature on grape development.
At Ducru-Beaucaillou in Bordeaux, the winemaker sends tractors to calculate the concentration of anthocyanins, a valuable antioxidant.
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear-magnetic resonance spectroscopy,are used by Axel Marchal of the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ISVV) in Bordeaux.
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