Hybrid grapes provide delicious option amid climate change

If you were offered a glass of Baco Noir or a crisp Seyval Blanc with your dinner, would you know what was being poured?

An estimated 20% of wine grapes in North America are hybrids, traditionally French-American hybrids. The remaining 80% are vitis vinifera — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc.

When colonizers arrived on the East Coast of what would become the United States, they brought vinifera cuttings from Europe. Those transplants failed, felled by mildew and pests. There was an effort to make wine using the hardier native grapes, such as Norton in Virginia, but the results often were unappealing and musky.

Then in the late 1800s, French growers and winemakers — struggling with the catastrophic infestation of phylloxera, the louse introduced unwittingly via vines imported from the U.S. — experimented with grafting vinifera to robust American rootstock. They created a host of French-American hybrid varieties, which became popular in the American Midwest where vinifera grapes did not thrive.

In the early days of the modern wine industry in the Pacific Northwest, these varieties found pockets of support throughout, primarily in British Columbia and Oregon. Ste. Michelle planted a few vines of Maréchal Foch in 1976 at their new château in Woodinville.

Now, however, a growing number of Pacific Northwest vineyard managers and winemakers are embracing some hybrids. They cite climate change, site selection and just plain good taste as their reasons.

Lane Cellars in SW WA relies on estate hybrids

When Kim Lane, co-owner and winemaker at Lane Cellars, established her compact, 1-acre vineyard in 2011, she was told vinifera would struggle in Southwest Washington. So she invested in hybrids. Lane now grows Maréchal Foch, Léon Millot and New York native Cayuga White. She is also experimenting with Labelle, Epicure, and Amiel – hybrid varieties developed in the 1980s by Swiss grape geneticist Valentin Blattner.

“The hybrids are cold-hardy and disease-resistant,” Lane says, adding that she is committed to sustainability and does not use chemicals on her land.

A visiting winemaker was astounded at the health of Lane’s vineyard despite the lack of spraying, not even with sulfur.

“If you handle your grapes very carefully, the wine — not that it makes itself — doesn’t need a whole lot of intervention,” Lane says.

In June, Lane Cellars opened its first tasting room in the Vancouver suburb of Brush Prairie. On the menu are wines made from hybrids and vinifera.

“We want things people can recognize,” she explains. “It gives us the opportunity — while they are sipping on a Syrah or Cab Franc — to say, ‘Here, give this a try.’ Then, we can explain sustainability and ethical growth.”

Minnesota variety leads to Platinum for OR winery

Nearly 200 miles to the southeast, in the shadow of the Three Sisters mountain range in Central Oregon, Cindy Grossman is growing seven varieties of hybrids across 15 acres at about 2,900 feet elevation for her Faith, Hope and Charity Vineyards.

The four reds are Léon Millot, Maréchal Foch and Midwest hybrids Frontenac and Marquette. They are joined by three whites also developed at the University of Minnesota — La Crescent, La Crosse and Frontenac Gris.

At one point, Grossman and her husband, Roger, planned to retire near Sunriver Resort on a couple dozen acres. However, they found themselves so in love with the region that they bought 312 acres of “gorgeous views” between Smith Rock and Sisters. They set aside a particularly picturesque section for a vineyard and winery.

“Hybrids are becoming more known because they are great wines,” she says, citing her Midwest upbringing and researching the work done by the University of Minnesota.

“Chefs love them. Somms love them. They just have to be introduced,” she added, “They have a nice acidic backbone and can pair with strong flavors.”

The smooth, fruit-forward wines made with Léon Millot and the off-dry, aromatic La Crescent are her favorites. Southern Oregon winemaker Linda Donovan, a product of the University of California-Davis program, has been crafting the Grossmans’ hybrid wines since 2010.

Faith, Hope and Charity Vineyards also sells wines made by Rick Moffit with European varieties grown in the Columbia Gorge and the Eola-Amity Hills. The wines gained a following from the start, and their 2021 La Crescent earned a Platinum Award from Great Northwest Wine in 2023.

Vidal pulls down Platinum for Stag’s Hollow Winery

Another 2023 Platinum Award winner was Stag’s Hollow Winery’s 2022 Tragically Vidal from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.

“We’ve been flying the Vidal flag since our beginnings here,” winemaker Keira LeFranc says. “1995 was the first vintage. It’s well- received by customers and the most popular wine in the wine shop.”

Vidal has been growing on what is now Stag’s Hollow estate for more than 30 years.

“The Vidal yields are incredible, and the size of clusters are amazing,” she says. “Our vineyard manager, Vilem Blazek, says Vidal is his favorite grape to grow as there is not a lot of management that needs to be done. This grape is incredibly hardy and can withstand the freezing BC temperatures.”

LeFranc is open to adding more hybrids, though it is not in the plan for now. With climate change, however, she notes there is more conversation to be had about hybrids and what they need to receive approval from the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA).

“There’s lots of snootiness about hybrids, which I think is misplaced,” she says. “Vidal has high acid and beautiful aromatics. What’s not to like?”

In the Puget Sound AVA, Bainbridge Vineyards grape grower/winemaker/ co-owner Betsey Wittick has been growing Regent, a vinifera/hybrid cross, for 15 years — thanks to Washington State University.

“We got plant material through the WSU extension station,” Wittick says. “They were trying to get some other red choices to grow in the Puget Sound region. The idea was to distribute cuttings to different growers in the Puget Sound area to see how they would do. We did some propagation and got them planted around 2008.”

She discovered that Regent, developed in Germany, doesn’t grow like other hybrid varieties.

“It’s not hardier, necessarily,” Wittick says. “It has a fragile point. I had to develop a different training system.”

As a result, Wittick prefers Regent as a blending grape.

“It’s good for rosé and maybe even for sparkling, but as a red, it’s better to blend with other reds to round out the flavor profile,” she says.

She blends the Regent with Pinot Noir and Garanoir (a Swiss red) for the Bainbridge Vineyards Farmstead Red and with Pinot Noir for the Emerge Rosé.

Hybrid grapes are successfully grown from British Columbia down throughout Oregon. But will they be accepted and appreciated as much as their European cousins? How many decades will it be before Northwest wine drinkers can appreciate the flavor profile of a Maréchal Foch as well as a Cabernet Sauvignon? If the wine industry in the Upper Left wants to grow and thrive, could embracing hybrids become a necessity?

Let’s discuss over a glass of Traminette or Chambourcin, shall we?