SC - There are no old world grapes.

[Decker, Terry D.]

>----------
>From: 	david friedman[SMTP:ddfr at best.com]
>Sent: 	Saturday, December 20, 1997 4:02 PM
>To: 	sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
>Subject: 	Re: SC - There are no old world grapes.
>
>At 12:01 PM -0600 12/20/97, jeffrey s heilveil wrote:
>>I was going to stay out of this one, but I feel I no longer have a choice.
>>It turns out that earlier in our history, a bug, the grape phylloxera, got
>>into Europe form the Americas and began decimating the roots of European
>>grapes.  From there, all of the European wine industry was in trouble.
>>The only way that the were able to continue growing grapes was by
>>importing American root stocks, and grafting European varieties on them.
>>The reason is that American grapes had been selected such that only
>>strains that were resistant to the phylloxera were able to survive (high
>>predation pressure).  So ineffect, there is no longer extant "old world"
>>grapes, because even the mighty french have had to rely on American root
>>stocks.  (And boy do they love that...)
>
>But there is still a legitimate distinction between old world grapes
>grafted to new world roots and new world grapes (Concord et. al.). Most
>dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees are dwarfed by grafting to rootstock of a
>related species, I think often quince--but a semi-dwarf golden delicious
>bears golden delicious apples, not quinces. I don't know if the root stock
>affects the characteristics of the grapes at all, but I wouldn't it expect
>it to be the major factor.
>
>David/Cariadoc
>http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

To my knowledge, grafting doesn't change the genetics of the grafted
branches, so any new plants grown from seed will have the
characteristics of the original plant.

According to Trager, American grapes were not good for wine and attempts
to cultivate the European grape (Vita vinifera) failed until 1769 when
the Mission Fathers in California succeeded in growing them in
California.

In 1861, the California State Legislature commissioned Count Agoston
Haraszthy de Mocksa to bring the choicest grape varieties from Europe.
He brought back 100,000 cuttings of 300 varieties of grapes, which
became the base for the California wine business.  As of 1970
(publication date of The Foodbook), Trager states that Vita vinifera
does not grow east of the Rockies, except in a hot house or in a hybrid
form.

So the root stock used in Europe could have been from transplanted
European stock.  I'd do a little further research, but my chief sources
of wine information are out on loan to a local vintner.

Bear
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