I figured I’d have to duck from some form or fruit or vegetable being lobbed at my head 
Broadbent brings in a new one called Taj (2020 vintage), and it was excellent. Worth seeking out, even for the doubters.
Sure, but why does that matter? I’ve never had a wine from hybrid grapes that was of even comparable quality to the best blueberry wines, and I have tried many of the former from many different states.
Is Muller-Thurgau still made in Germany or has it been replanted? Not sure of the definition of worthy…
How about the elusive Champale grape?
Those are full-vinifera crosses, not hybrids…
This one as well.
Totally agree with this post. Not really my jam either. But there are more and more wineries here in Quebec that are trying different blends and approaches so we will see what this leads to over time. I’ve been trying more local wines over the past couple of years but unfortunately, I have not been very excited with any of them. I should add a disclaimer though that some wines are gaining local acclaim and a decent following so maybe it’s just my conditioned and tired palate! Maybe one of the issues (alongside weather obviously) is also the age of the vinestock. Most of them are pretty young by common standards.
I liked “Frangine” by Pinard et Filles but it’s a wine for the more “natural” crowd
Chambourcin is the best US hybrid grape I’ve had wines from that are consistently palatable. Examples from IL, VA, PA, but none of those climates are as short growing season as CO. Is it as good as Cab Franc/Merlot which it is closest to? No, imo.
For wine grape growing in harsh climate, freeze protection by burying canes, or even the whole vine in winter with mulch, works with vitus vinafera grapes with enough work and patience. For a backyard hobby, a small plot of 100-150 vines or so is manageable I think. I planted 1700 vines which I can assure you is too many to manage by yourself, and I have often hired crews, but they are knowledgeable in vineyard work, pruning training, etc… Choosing which varieties to plant is something I’d for sure consult with a University that is looking at cold climate grape farming in the Rocky Mountain states. Growing degree day information should be available or is easily calculated for your specific location.
FWIW, Washington State, which also can have very cold spells, sub zero for weeks at a time in Eastern WA, started mostly with the German varieties Riesling, Gewurz, Lemberger, and over the course of years/decades found growing techniques and local terroir that could support all the main French/Spanish/Italian varieties. The achilles heel here is that every decade or so they may get frozen to the ground, have freeze during bud break or flowering, and have no crop. Long term there have been plenty of those events in WA but they have been generally localized enough that the overall industry has carried on. For example if parts of Yakima freezes, Wahluke is OK, or visa versa. The most labor intensive, but protective method, I’ve seen is growing head trained vines but keeping them below a foot tall, then burying the whole vine with mulch for winter over.
ETA, I see above some posts about Quebec using same growing/burying techniques. That is path I’d follow, and give it a go. Another piece of advice, drink some wine from the variety you want to plant grown in similar growing conditions if you can find it, even if it far far away from CO. You really need to like to drink whatever you are growing in your yard.
I’ve had 20 year old fortified Chambourcin from Porto Santo, the island neighboring Madeira. Decent stuff, but not as good as the Vinifera varieties.
In some cases, boutique…errr… scratch that, Rustic sweet wines. Some mixed success. Otherwise I’m taking the under on expectations based on past history.
Almost all wines made from hybrids obviously will come from marginal regions, where vinifera-based winegrowing is a struggle.
In most of these regions, the accumulated viticultural and enological knowledge is thin compared to vinifera-friendly wine regions. And the budgets devoted to both grape growing and winemaking tend to be far less generous.
This alone leads to wines that don’t really match up.
And, of course, in most cases the aromas, flavors, and structures stray from the vinifera idiom… sometimes by a little, sometimes by quite a lot. What people find “worthy” will in large part depend upon how married they are to the idea of good wine adhering to a specific sets of flavors/aromas/mouthfeel. Non-vinifera wine used to be highly regarded (see Longfellow’s “Ode to Catawba Wine”), and in SE Asia Labrusca-based wines are tremendously popular.
Well-made non-vinifera wine can be pretty good. Good enough?.. that’s for everyone to decide by themselves.
Re: your cold climate… are you talking low Degree Day Index for the growing season, or very cold winters? In either case, how cold is it in your area?
The problem isn’t when you are prepared for a winter freeze (burying, etc) the problem is when you are not. This past October in Colorado wine country, it went from 70 something to 3 degrees in 24 hours. The Cab, Merlot, Cab Franc took a big hit. The hybrids, not so much.
I’ve had nice reds made from a PA vineyard planted with Steuben, including one at over 10 years old that was delicious.
Check out TerraVox in Missouri. There are threads here mentioning them and they even participated in a Berserker Day. Dedicated to resurrecting the research and breeding of American grapes by Thomas Munson. They’ve been an ongoing project finding which of those grapes are most suitable to their site, how best to grow them and make wines from them, and which are ultimately worth continuing with. We did an extensive tasting a few years ago (search for it) when the winemaker thought they were really hitting their stride. Impressive stuff. Unique, compelling aromatics.
There are a bunch of American grape species. Most are not foxy in character. Munson’s hybrid work was largely abandoned when his grafting research saved the wine industry.
Here’s a blurb from the TerraVox site:
Our vineyard could not exist without the work of a man named Thomas Volney Munson (or T.V. for short). T.V. Munson was an American viticulturist working around the turn of the 20th century. He is credited with saving the European wine industry from utter destruction by Phylloxera, an epidemic during the late 1800’s.
Phylloxera is an aphid that feeds on grapevine roots. Native to North America, this pest was introduced to Europe in the 1850’s by English botanists. It’s estimated that as much as 90% of European vineyards were destroyed by the aphid.
It was Munson’s work in developing native North American vinestock that led to a solution to the epidemic: European Vitis vinifera grapes could be grafted to native North American rootstock. The hardy North American rootstock is resistant to phylloxera (since both pest and vine had evolved side by side). Munson was named Chevalier du Merite Agricole by the French government for his work.
In addition to saving European wine, Munson was also an avid grape breeder and the leading expert in North American grape species. He is responsible for the initial cultivation and study of most of the grapes grown at TerraVox today.
My favorite hybrids are grown in Germany - Rieslaner and Scheurebe
Yes, fall freeze damage, maybe not that cold, but low teens, happens in Washington Octobers too. I lost most of a row of Roussanne and 3 rows of Syrah on my 2nd winter, 2016. A different clone of syrah, 14 rows, luckily survived much better. That was just luck. Sometimes that’s when any non-hardened vine above the ground, or the whole vine structure if too young, gets wiped out.
I’m not sure if any hybrids were tried here, but site selection, trial plots and the possibility of losing a year or two is more common. For sure heartier hybrids might survive better.
For the OP considering a home vineyard, maybe he could try some of a few different, including hybrids, to see what does best.
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Have had enjoyable vidal blanc and seyval blanc from the Finger Lakes region many moons ago. Hosmer Estate Winery makes a very fine sparkling cayuga that is worth trying. Back in my Cornell days(1981-2) I had enjoyed a chancellor and baco noir wines from Plane Winery. They start off very rough in the early years but mellowed out and became enjoyable with 3-4 years on them. Locally where I am now there is lots of St. Croix being grown and I have not found a wine from that grape to my liking yet.
I planted Muscadine, Catawba and a few other hybrids in my backyard, but my irregular irrigation kinda killed them off. One of them was Roger’s Red, which I’m very curious about as it seems to be a cross between Alicante Bouschet and the native Vitis California.
Curious what the Muscadine would have turned to in the right hands. I’ve seen a few expressions, nothing noteworthy, but presents an interesting challenge.
Those have nothing to do with hybrids, they are both regular Vitis vinifera varieties.
Save for a few regions in France and Austria, hybrids are not allowed in making other than no-appellation table wine in classical wine countries. You see hybrids only in these new wine countries like Denmark or Poland or Lithuania.