Vine varieties and wines: French hybrids

French hybrids represent the majority of acreage devoted to dry table wines. Most were developed by French hybridizers, working intensively from 1880 to 1950, to create new varieties that were hardy and disease and pest resistant. Newer hybrids (and some crosses) have been bred at NYSAES. The most important white hybrid is seyval blanc, which grows in every New York wine region except Long Island, and which, much to the confusion of some consumers, can be made clean and fruity in stainless steel, or can be the much more complex result of barrel fermentation and malolactic conversion. vidal blanc and, particularly, vignoles both lend themselves to making late-harvest, dessert wines, Vignoles sometimes being beneficially affected by noble rot. aurore, once the most widely planted white hybrid grape in New York, has given way to the prestige of Seyval Blanc. Two New York white hybrids, developed at NYSAES and released commercially in 1982, are Cayuga GW3 and Melody. Both of these are vigorous, resistant, and productive, and make fruity off-dry wines. Wine made from Melody is reminiscent of its Pinot Blanc parent. A third white, traminette (1996), echoing Gewurztraminer, is finding favour with consumers. The red French hybrids are declining in acreage. The most famous are baco Noir and chambourcin, which are vinified in all styles from nouveau to port-like; maréchal foch, which can also make a good nouveau using carbonic maceration; de chaunac; chancellor, which needs some oak ageing to add complexity; and Chelois (Seibel 10878), which works well in blends, especially with Baco Noir.