Sex on the Vine - Crossings and Hybrids

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.

A recent trip to Arrowleaf Cellars with the family.

If you take a grape seedling of a species (most wine vines, for example, are from the species vitis vinifera),
 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....

Rosé All Day - A Friendly Rosé Challenge - France vs BC!

Some tasty Rosés from the cellar.

Every week, my friend Keith and I try to get out in the great outdoors and paint.

Neither of us is an expert - in fact, we both have so much to learn - but we enjoy getting out and trying to paint. The idea is not to make a great painting; the idea is to do some aspect of the painting well - or at least improve. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it doesn't.

Today's plein air attempt at Mission Heritage Park.

Today was not a bad day for painting. I was happy with my tree - especially the leaves - and with the grass in front. The background wasn't so bad, either. A good couple of hours spent.

So then, it was time to have some Rosé.

A much younger version of me and wife with Rosé and Pastis.

Rosé is so popular now but it wasn't always that way. I discovered Rosé (not the sugary stuff like Mateus) in 2005 when my family was on a house exchange in Nimes, France. It was August and it was hot. Really hot.

At that time, my wife and I were red wine drinkers exclusively. But it was not red wine weather. Too hot! We looked around and people in Nimes tended to drink Kir (wine and cassis), Pastis (Pernod or Richard and water), beer, or Rosé. So we adapted.

After that, it became (and still is) our summer wine drink.

Two weeks ago, I was in Kelowna at the Salt and Brick restaurant for lunch with family. I had their Rosé flight which I really enjoyed. For today's tasting, I thought we'd do a mini flight of Rosé - one from France and one from BC.

The French wine was our first wine of the tasting. It was a 2017 Domaine De L'Ostal Rosé ($16)  from Pays D'Oc which is basically country wine from the Roussilon-Languedoc Region of France - just west of Nimes. This pale salmon wine made of 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah had a medium intensity aroma and smelled of cherry, strawberry, red liquorice, cinnamon and red jujubes. You can see that I struggled to use the usual descriptors!

On the palate there were some tastes of the same as the aroma as well as a bit of cotton candy and a slight syrupy flavour. Interestingly, the fruitiness of the aromas were not nearly that strong on the palate. It actually tasted just a hint off dry but on second tasting, that went away. This had medium acidity, a medium minus finish, medium alcohol and medium intensity. I would say this is between Acceptable and Good.

The BC wine in this friendly battle was a 2018 Mt. Boucherie Rosé ($22)  from West Kelowna.  I'm not sure what grape is in it but the 2017 was made with Zweigelt (an Austrian crossing of St. Laurent and Blaufrankisch)  so it's likely the 2018 was made with the same grape.

On the nose, which was pronounced in intensity, there were aromas of grapefruit, lemon, blood orange, strawberry and a minerality. On the palate, there were these same flavours as well as watermelon. This high acidity wine was dry,. intense, had a short finish, and medium alcohol. It was a great patio sipping wine and was very refreshing. I would give it a Very Good rating,.

Both wines had their pluses but the BC wine was overall a better wine, in our humble opinion. The French wine would make a nice pairing to different summer foods, especially grilled food. The BC wine was great on its own and would probably stand up to most light summer meals. The only problem with the BC wine is that it is only available online or at the winery. Road trip...

Rosé all day!