The reproduction of grapes is a strange and wonderful thing.
Grapes are hermaphrodites - that means they have both male and female parts. When it comes time to fertilize, they don't need bees to pollinate them - they do it on their own. Truly self-sufficient! That makes sure that the grapes are identical - clones - year over year.
If you want to plant a new vine, you can simply cut off a hunk of vine and plant it somewhere else. Usually, that hunk of vine is grafted onto another type of vine so that it is resistant to phylloxera, the nasty little bugger that almost wiped out all the grapes in Europe in the nineteenth century. There's other ways of propagating vines, but that is the one most commonly used.
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| A recent trip to Arrowleaf Cellars with the family. |
and cross it with another seedling from the same species, you get what is called a crossing. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon is actually a crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc that happened in nature. There are lots of crossings, however, that happen in a lab. The South African grape Pinotage, for example, is a crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, made so it would taste like Pinot Noir but could stand hotter temperatures like Cinsault.
Weirdly, even if you take a seedling from a certain type of grape and cross it with another seedling from the exact same grape, you will get something different. Crazy!
Zweigelt, an Austrian grape, is a crossing of two well known Austrian grapes, St. Laurent and Blaufrankisch. It is now the most common red grape varietal in Austria.
The Zweigelt that we tried was from Arrowleaf in Lake Country, just east of Kelowna. The 2017 Arrowleaf Zweigelt ($23) had aromas of blackberry, blueberry, plum, pepper, and spice, It had a faint aroma of acidity as well and had a medium plus intensity on the nose. On the palate were similar tastes to the nose with the addition of leather. It was quite acidic with medium tannins and a medium finish. This was a pleasant, easy-drinking wine that was rated as Good.
Now, here's where it gets a little crazier.
If you take a grape vine seedling from one species (like vitis vinifera) and cross it with a grape from another species (think, grape juice grapes), this is called a hybrid. The advantage of hybrids is that they are resistant to phylloxera as well as other nasty things like nematodes and mildew. The Canadian icewine grape Vidal, for example, is a hybrid grape.
Our second wine was a Marechal Foch - a hybrid of Goldriesling (a crossing between Riesling and another grape) and another grape that is a different species, which itself is a cross between the river grape and mountain grape.
The wine was a 2014 Little Straw Single Vineyard Marechal Foch from West Kelowna ($19.90). This wine had aromas and flavours of red cherry, blueberry, spice, a lot of pepper, some leather, and a definite minerality. The intensity of the nose was medium and this wine had medium plus acidity, medium minus tannins, and a short finish. The pepper aspect of this wine combined with its spiciness would make it a great food wine, accompanying a nice soft cheese or some chicken. This was also rated as a Good wine.
So why aren't there a ton of hybrid grapes? The problem with many of them is that they develop a 'foxy' or musky aroma in wine which is definitely not desirable. Although the Marechal Foch is a pleasant grape, that is not always the case.
There you have it - reproduction, propagation, crossings and hybrids. For grapes, sex is a complicated and fairly unique process.
I think I'll light up a smoke and have a glass of wine....
