The rise of the hybrid in wine

A few years ago we almost bought a Boston terrier – a small, square-headed, snub-nosed dog breed with character to burn. One of the reasons we didn’t was the insurance cost, which was enormous. Like many pure breeds, it came with multiple inherent health problems. When we did get a pooch, she was a mixed breed. The insurance was very low, and the vet said (rather sadly) that she’d probably hardly ever see her. So far, the vet’s been right. Such are the advantages of a wider genetic pool: of cross-breeding. I’m reminded of them every time someone talks about hybrid grape varieties. Essentially, hybrids are cross breeds. They’re a way of mitigating against a variety’s bad points by bringing in another variety that does them better. In their most radical format, they’re made by mixing two species of vines; often vitis lambrusca (native North American) varieties with a classic vitis vinifera variety. Lambrusca are hardy - able to withstand disease and drought far better than the higher-maintenance vinifera. In their pure state, they’re usually seen as somewhat less refined. But, put the two together, runs the thinking, and you get something approaching the best of both worlds; great flavour and structure, but also a lot more tolerance to adverse weather. Because of this, they’re a growing trend in cooler, damper regions of northern Europe - Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK, in particular. This is partly because their yields are better and more reliable, but also because they allow growers to practice organic viticulture in places where it would otherwise be extremely difficult. Since much of the growth of these hybrids is being driven by German-speaking countries, they're coming to be known as 'Piwis', an abbreviation for an indigestible mouthful of German meaning, basically, ‘fungus-resistant grape varieties’. Thomas Niedermayr in the Tirol is a good example of the thinking behind this new trend. He wants to produce high-quality, healthy grapes with as little intervention as possible; to be independent from the chemical and pesticide industries. He makes the point that, as well as the directly-negative effects of using man-made chemicals, if you have to treat vineyards 15-to-20 times a year - as he would in his area if he used vitis vinifera grapes - repeatedly driving heavy machinery down the rows severely compacts the ground. "With resistant varieties [because we don’t have to spray] we can bind much more carbon in our soil," says Niedermayr. "Our cover crops can grow as high as possible. We're not only creating habitat but producing biomass that is then benefiting our soils. Combating disease and climate change is the same thing in the end." The environmental benefits of Piwi varieties are well established, yet legislators seem conflicted about them. While they're permitted for making PDO wine in the German-speaking world, they're not (thus far) permitted in places like France, Italy or the UK. The Germans argue that many of their hybrids have been ‘back-bred’ so much that they are now essentially vitis vinifera, with no trace of hybridicity. Niedermayr sees these complications as a "political problem". "The current DOC regulation in Italy requests wines that are classically produced and have a certain standard, in a wine world that is sterile," he says. "It doesn’t have to do with natural products, more with customer-fit aroma profiles." He may be right, but consumer acceptance - or, perhaps more accurately, consumer awareness - is also low. One supermarket buyer I spoke to on the issue was dismissive. Consumers, he said, didn’t care about hybrid varieties; they simply weren’t on their radar. Greg Dunn is a lecturer at Plumpton College in the (cool, damp) UK, where they have two dozen Piwi varieties in their student vineyards and even he sees them as a niche within the industry. As he puts it, they are for "the type of people who buy and sell locally; people who are into organic and biodynamic". If you’re trying to sell an organic Seyval Blanc, in other words, the word ‘organic’ is likely to be the biggest consumer driver to purchase, rather than the variety. It’s the same natural, hands-off mentality that attracts Thomas Niedermayr. And, since environmental issues are a significant driver for younger consumers in particular, hybrids are worth keeping an eye on, niched or not. It’s often claimed that hybrid varieties inherently make less high-quality wine than pure vitis vinifera varieties. But, this could be somewhat disingenuous. Yes, some of the flavours can be strong or unusual, but some vinifera varieties are also pretty unusual, and the wine world seems to have managed to accustom itself to those. Proponents argue that Piwi varieties are often grown in super-marginal areas, where it's always going to be a struggle to create something of superior quality, so they're not being compared like-for-like with vinifera. If they were planted in equally established sub-regions, they say, the analysis would be more meaningful. The industry also has significantly less experience with hybrid varieties. "Over time, we’ve selected vitis vinifera and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it’s what we’re used to," says Dunn. "Some American varieties have a foxy characteristic, and that’s genuinely dislikable. But, if we’d started domesticating these vines 5,000 years ago, what kind of wines would we be making now?" Niedermayr also points out that vine age could be an issue. His father planted his first Piwi vines over 20 years ago, and he sees a difference between the older vines and the younger ones - just as you would with vitis vinifera varieties. "There is definitely a lack of experience," he says. "We need to explore and research more." In this, the example of Pinotage is instructive. It’s a cross of two vinifera varieties - Cinsault and Pinot Noir - rather than a hybrid, but it has still taken South Africa’s winemakers a long time to work out how to get the best out of it. So, it’s probably unrealistic to expect growers to get the hang of the myriad hybrids that are making their way into the vineyards in just a few years. Much of the impetus for hybrids has been driven by the need to breed something hardy in cool or damp climates. But, could wineries soon be looking for new varieties that do something quite different? Last year, in a laudably prescient nod to the inevitability of climate change, Bordeaux approved six new grape varieties for use in its vineyards. Two were established Portuguese vitis vinifera varieties (Touriga Nacional and Alvarinho), one was an almost-forgotten French variety (Castets) and three were crosses. All were chosen because of their ability to resist drought. Admittedly, these new varieties cannot make up more than 5% of a vineyard or 10% of any one wine, but their inclusion is still intriguing. These are varieties that could, in theory, help Bordeaux taste more like Bordeaux in hot years and, because the region doesn’t varietally label its wines, any squeamishness on the part of the consumer is avoided. Admittedly, this isn’t a solution for single-varietal regions such as Burgundy. But, for regions where blending is commonplace, hardier vines with the right structure could become an invaluable element in the tool kit of heat-stressed wineries. Who’s to say that drought-resistant hybrids – crosses of, say, a vitis lambrusca and a vitis vinifera variety - might not make it onto the ‘approved’ list in 20 or 30 years' time? After all, if you’d suggested 20 years ago that Marselan (Cab/Grenache) or Arinarnoa (Tannat/Cabernet) would be allowed in Bordeaux, you would have been laughed out of the chateau.