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.