North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

There are a number of grapes that have excellent disease resistance, but
would need testing for wine quality.  The old Munson grape America is as
close to cast-iron as you can get, and very adaptable, but no one has used
it for wine in about a century.  U. P. Hedrick said it made a very good
port, but I can't find anyone who might have followed up on that.  A friend
of mine who is very knowledgeable about wine says Delicatessan does very
good in Oklahoma and produces a uniquely fruity wine.  There are others, but
they need exploration.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, unusual fruits, writing, consulting, more, at
http://www.hevanet.com/lonrom

----------
>From: "Christopher Mauchline" <mauch1@aol.com>
>To: nafex@egroups.com
>Subject: [nafex] Re: grapes
>Date: Tue, Dec 19, 2000, 12:28 PM
>

>Mike,
>    I've been growing grapes in "almost SE PA" (SW Berks county) for 
>almost 15 years and have ~1 acre on my father's property that has 
>been planted for ~10 years.  
>
>    I should preface my comments by the fact that personally, I am 
>somewhat "burned-out" on grapes.
>
>    If you consider copper/lime (Bordeaux) and sulfur 
>sprays "organic" (I don't feel they are) the answer is "probably", 
>knowing that in the worst years you will possibly lose a significant 
>portion of your crop.
>
>    Note there are 4 main diseases (fungal) of grapes: Black rot 
>(BR), Powdery Mildew (PM), Downy Mildew (DM), and Boytritis (also 
>known as bunch rot (and in certain climates as "noble rot").
>
>Anyways, there seems to be among the currently avaiable varieties a 
>fairly direct relationship between quality and disease resistance.  
>I.e. the best wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) are the most disease 
>resistance.  Lambrusca grapes are fairly disease resistance, but 
>don't make good wine unless you like it very sweet.  Hybrid grapes 
>(hybrids of V. vinifera and other Vitis species (usually not V. 
>lambrusca)) are usually more disease resistant that vinifera, but 
>don't have quite the wine quality of vinifera.  My personal belief is 
>this could be overcome by further breeding work, but the wine 
>industry and wine consumers are extremely conservative when it comes 
>to new varieties, so it seems not much work is being done on new 
>varieties.
>
>My short list of fairly disease resistant wine grapes:
>
>Marchel Foch
>J.S. 23-416
>Vidal blanc
>
>If you want to contact me, we can get together sometime.  I could 
>probably also arrange for you to see the vineyard at my parents.  I 
>currently have no grapes at my current location.
>
>Chris Mauchline
>SE PA, zone 6
>
>--- In nafex@egroups.com, "mike tomlinson" <tugger@n...> wrote:
>> I plan to put in a small vinyard next spring on a south facing 
>slope 
>> in zone 6 in SE PA. Temperature extremes go from minus 5 degrees or
>> so to 100 degrees with adequate rain fall and lots of humidity. 
>Total 
>> space may be 1/4 acre.
>> 
>> I grow apples, keep an organic garden, make hard cider and now 
>would 
>> like to branch out into small scale wine making.  
>> 
>> What varieties should I consider?  Can it be done organically? Any 
>> suggestions and comments will be greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> Happy holidays to all.
>> 
>> Mike
>
>
>
>
>
>

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