Tex-French wine

I find it interesting to bring  1st generation Tex-French grape vines back to Texas.  They are a subset of vines now known as 'French American' vines.  The most well known of the French-American vines trace their ancestry back to the famous Jaeger 70 vine bred by Herman Jaeger sometime between 1880 and 1895.  Jaeger 70 (aka Munson) was created by crossing two wild vines found in the Ozarks, one a Lincecumii  (aka Post-oak vine) vine, the other being rupestris (aka July, sand or sugar grape).  Jaeger 70 was incredibly healthy, and produced abundant and large clusters.  Jaeger 70 is still around and still be tasted if you know the right people.  It has a distinctive smoky, tar taste that is hard to mask.  It passed this taste to its descendants.

Unfortunately for Texans, the French favored crossing foxy Lubrusca (found in the Northeast), and smokey-tar tasting Jaeger 70.  Most Europeans think all grapes in America taste like Jaeger 70.

It isn't so. Texas cinerea and rupestris don't have the tar and fox of the upper Mid-west and east coast.

No one really tried to work with sweet Texas vines. They had very small berries.  All Europe cared about was healthy root stock. They didn't need to improve taste.  That job had been finished around 1650 when Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay were bred.

Meanwhile, in Texas, we don't need root stock, we need bigger fruit, but all anyone thought the French-American vines could be used for was root stock. For example, Fercal (rupestris x vinifera) is a popular rootstock).  I'm uses Fercal for fruit.

I find the idea of breeding root stock here in Texas rather odd.  The native grapes do fine and we have every grape disease known to man.  Instead, we need fruit breeding!  For some reason, we felt we needed to copy the French.  Since the French were doing root stock breeding, it seems that is what the state and university system wanted to do.

I don't know about you, but it is an irony that I enjoy reflecting on this while drinking a glass of wine in my vineyard.

Anyway, here is to Tex-French wine!

Tex-French is already a popular taste:

A taste of Tex-French

Tex-French/Corn, Cheese and Green Chile Souffle and Souffle Aux Pommes de Terre 

Tex-French Flavor