[Growwine] Great stuff: South Dakota winery making renowned Vitis riparia wine

[Lon J. Rombough]

Pat Pierquet evaluated and selected wild riparia for his graduate work 
in the 1970's.  One of his selections was the basis of Frontenac.  Herb 
Fritzke in Minnesota has done several generations of selecting on 
riparia.  He started with the best he could find, then planted seed in 
the wild and mapped the locations.  He let Nature weed out the poor 
ones, and planted seed of the best.  He went through several 
generations that way.  Patrick's and Herb's  best selections have been 
collected at the U. of Minnesota.  That also includes some of the best 
Manitoba selections.
The main drawback to using riparia for wine is that the species is 
dioecious, so you'd have to interplant them either with male riparias 
or with perfect flowered grapes to pollinate them so you'd get a crop.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at 
http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association 
"Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
For even more grape lessons, go to  http://www.grapeschool.com
For all other things grape,   http://www.vitisearch.com

On May 2, 2008, at 5:19 PM, Ryan Daum wrote:

The acid & sugar balance in wild riparia I've picked is much better
after first frost.  But, I wonder how he keeps the birds from taking it
all.  Given what wineries are doing with baco noir & frontenac (both 50%
v.riparia) I can't help but wonder what could be done with selected
v.riparia cultivated on a good site with the right soil and with
aggressive pruning, crop thinning, etc.

Ryan

On Fri, 2008-05-02 at 12:20 -0700, Paul Bulas wrote:
> It's even enjoyed in Paris, France: 
> http://www.prairiebizmag.com/articles/index.cfm?id=9401
>
>
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