A Year of Wine : Wine and Food Blog: February 20 - Three Grape ...

Three Grape Species

The three most important species of grapes are, one, the muscadine grapes. They are very vigorous and disease tolerant, especially when compared to wine grapes. Two, the labrusca grapes. This includes the famous Concord. They're native to the North America and are used primarily for sweet grape juice, jellies and jams. Finally, vinifera, the wine making grapes. These are thought to have originated near the Caspian sea. Vinifera, or old world grapes are very susceptible to disease and could not be grown in North America until the were grafted onto labrusca rootstocks. Hybrids were also developed, crosses between vinifera and labrusca which were resistant to New World diseases but also produced good quality wines. These so called French American hybrids go by the names Marechal Foch, Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin and Seyval. Vidal Blanc is probably the most promising of the four making great Ice Wines in Canada and tart Sauvignon Blanc style wines in the North Eastern US.