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From the Winemaker's Notebook: Growing Grapes in Kansas: Hybrids on the High Plains
	Most people have heard of chardonnay, merlot and cabernet…all very popular types of wines. But did you know they are also the name of the grape varieties used to make wine? The naming of wines has roots in eighteenth century France, where the procedure for naming wines came through the simple process of calling the wine by the name of the area in which the grape was grown. Grapes grown in the Burgundy area of France produced Burgundy wine, grapes grown in the Chablis area of France produced Chablis wine, those in Bordeaux produced Bordeaux, and so on.

When grape growing and wine making first started on the northern coast of California, vintners followed the procedure for naming wines as had been done in France for centuries. A California wine with the characteristics of a French Chablis was called chablis. The French took a strong position, suggesting that since it wasn’t made in the Chablis area of France, the wine could not be rightfully called a chablis, and likely did not possess the same character or qualities of a French Chablis. The persistent stigma that California wines were inferior to French wines started with those arguments. The stigma faded with time, as vintners on the west coast became very good at what they produced. Many wine lovers believe California wines are as good, or better than French wines.

Robert Mondavi is one of the west coast fathers of the grape and wine industry. Credited with one of the most masterful marketing ploys of all time, he challenged the French to a blind wine tasting. Perhaps feeling it would be a slam-dunk, the French accepted, and after that, things were never quite the same, since a great many of the California wines were judged to be superior to the French wines.

This was the first major platform for change in the wine world: quality wines produced in a new world.

With that, it became critical for California vintners to name their wines for something other than for the wine regions in France, so wines were named for the grapes from which the wine was produced. Consequently, wine produced from Chardonnay grapes became Chardonnay; from Cabernet grapes, cabernet wine and so on. California wines gained in popularity not only because of their quality, but the simplicity of the names.

The Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc grapes indigenous to California could not thrive in Kansas. Kansas grape growers sought and found grapes Kansas soils and weather conditions were more compatible with: Seyval Blanc, Chambourcin, Norton, Vignoles. These are hybrid grapes: grapes of one strain crossed with another by man, intentionally in test plots or by natural cross-pollination.

Long before we knew anything about cross-pollination, it had already taken place. Root stock used for modern cross-pollination had already evolved into the hardiest plants, plants most able to survive cold temperatures, diseases and fungus. These are the vines that prevailed, and those are the ones that came to make Kansas wines.

The birth of hybrid grapes dates back to an event that took place in France in the mid 1700s as a result of grapes shipped from the US to France. Early settlers in the New World were surprised upon their arrival to find grapes growing wild in the forest. Vines that grew up to the tops of the trees! They believed they had found the Mecca for grape growing until they found these wild grapes didn’t make very good wine. So, they imported grapevines from France, where the quality had long since been established. French farmers were very interested in these wild, vigorous and hardy vines found in the new America, so attempts were made to export American vines and import French vines…but all early attempts failed. The vines died before reaching their French destination.

With the advent of steam ships imported French vines arrived, were planted and flourished for a short time, then died. Period technology and limited research capabilities didn’t reveal why it didn’t work…it was generally felt the vines had been planted in similar climates.

At the same time in Europe, the American vines were planted and thrived. But the euphoria was short-lived. The phylloxera bug, an aphid-like insect native to the US that eats through the roots of grapevines, had found a new home in Europe. American vines had developed an immunity, but in Europe it found an excellent habitat and breeding ground with no immunity, and literally consumed the vineyards, devastating the country and it into an economic depression. Grape growing and wine making was a principal industry, so workers were to move to other countries, establishing countries like Italy and Germany as new centers for grape growing and wine making.

To help re-establish grape growing in France, a professor from the University of Missouri developed plant grafting. By taking the root stock of vines grown in the US and grafting French tops on them, the vines could produce the fruit desired from the original plants, but with roots that would withstand the phylloxera. It was successful, and the French vineyards were replanted at tremendous expense.

During that same time period, hybridizers in France practiced crossing French and American vines to produce a vine that would produce the desired fruit, with roots that would resist phylloxera. They, too, were successful, but not before the success from grafting. Some acreages were planted with hybrid vines, but vineyards already planted with the grafted vines had been done at great expense, and the grape growers rejected the idea of planting the hybrid plants, likely out of fear that the hybrid fruit would produce a higher quality fruit and put them out of business. Laws were written that are still in place today, making hybrids illegal.

Hybrids were smuggled out of France and into the United States. Cornell, USC Davis and SW Missouri State at Mountain Grove all began to develop hybrid varieties. Those are the varieties that have done well in the Midwest. Most of those varieties have a common variety parent. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon is a parent of Chambourcin. Traminette, a grape increasing in popularity that makes very fine wine, is an offspring of the Gewürztraminer. Interestingly enough, in wine completion, the wine made from the Traminette had no category for which to be entered, so the winemaker who made the first wine from the Traminette grape decided the closest fit was in the Gewürztraminer category, so entered it without disclosing the wine was actually made from this hybrid. He walked away with a large number of gold medals from a series of competitions before it was revealed the wine was crafted from the hybrid Traminette.

This is indicative of the quality of the hybrid vines. Modern knowledge and technology has advanced so the success of hybrids continues to flourish. In a few years, we will likely see more varieties created, much like has happened with tomatoes over the last 20 years. Variety in the tomato meat and color, reduction in seeds, the resistance to disease and insects, increased tolerance to less water…those are all things common to a variety of hybrid tomatoes, and in the grape industry, we are standing on the same threshold.

This article was authored by founder and winemaker Steve Jennings in January, 2005.

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