(1) Munson, famous Texas grape breeder, estimated that only 1 in 1000 grape seedlings were as good or better than their parents. Apparently winegrapes are quite unique combinations of sugar and flavor. It’s like expecting the daughter of a world class supermodel to also be a supermodel… likely she’ll be cuter than average, but she probably won’t be as good as her mom. Don’t let me dissuade you from, er, crosspollinating with a world class supermodel if you are given the opportunity of course.

(2) Many, perhaps all, of our classic winegrapes began as accidental seedlings that someone recognized as valuable. Cabernet Sauvignon appears to have begun ~300 years ago as an acccidental cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. But, perhaps legions of such crosses happened in the centuries that these 2 vines grew next to each other and just this one was found good enough to be preserved in its own right. Likewise, about 14 different French grapes have been shown to be medieval crosses between Pinot Noir (which is ~2000 years old), and an old variety called Gouais Blanc. These 2 varieties were grown in close proximity for centuries; they must have crosspollinated millions of times, producing uncountable thousands of accidental seedlings… and only 14 were worth propagating? Scary odds… but then again, one of those 14 was Chardonnay, so you might get super lucky.

(3) It doesn’t look as if Dr Walker ever answered. But if he does, I suspect that he’ll tell you not to waste your time planting anything that isn’t resistant to Pierce’s Disease. Keep watching for the Foundation Plant Services to release his new PD resistant vines in the next few years, and start your homegrown crossing experiments with those. If you can’t wait (I can’t), look to old PD resistant hybrids such as Lenoir (very hard to get in Calif), or the ornamental “Roger’s Red” which is an edible but feral cross between a winegrape and the PD-tolerant native Vitis californica. .

DC

I’m not sure if I made clear the real aim of the experiment with seeds/hybridization. It is not to attempt to identify a “superior” new variety or even a particular genotype that is perhaps better adapted to a given site than one similar to it. It is rather to create a great deal of genetic diversity within a certain defined family or clan of grapes, with the belief/hypothesis that this extreme genetic diversity considered in aggregate (if one can figure out the most appropriate way to devise criteria of inclusion or exclusion) will perhaps yield an utterly unique wine and perhaps something like a vrai vin de terroir. In any event, I believe that grapes grown from seedlings – just because of their rooting habit – will do something different from conventionally propagated ones. But how to turn this into a wine that people will actually enjoy is another question.

Cinsaut can make a pleasant wine when properly made – but that can be said about most varieties.

Deeply seated fear? I wonder how many Pinotages you have had to make your statement and whether you have had properly made aged Pinotage.

Problem with new varieties – and you’ll find this if you are successful – is that it takes time to learn how to best handle a variety and make the best of it. You and other new world wine makers have been using the old world as a template of what those variety should taste like. But a brand new variety cannot point to others and has to forge its own direction.

Pinot Noir is not an easy grape to make great wines and there are many poor examples but that is a spur to winemakers to try harder. Pinotage is also not an easy grape from which to make a good wine and there have been too many bad examples but does that mean a variety is worthless because not everyone can make good wine from it?

With just 50 Pinotage vintages they’re still learning but I think they are making better Pinotage than ever. And what about the California Pinotages from Fort Ross, Vino Con Brio, J Vineyards, Sutter Ridge and others?

As you are a winemaker who likes a challenge, I challenge you to make a great Pinotage – there are grapes growing and available in California you can buy.

Peter F May
Author of
PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine

This is what plant (and animal) breeders have been doing for centuries, and also what viticultural centres have been and are doing now. In Cornel University’s research station at Geneva, New York they have been doing this with success in combining native American vine hardiness for upper NY state conditions with the preferable wine features of vitis vinifera.

Geneva are using technology to identify specific genes with desired attributes in parent vines. Even so of the many thousands of resulting seeds that are planted many will produce new varieties that are sterile, grow poorly or are otherwise useless.

Your random breeding idea may well throw up another successful variety: as you know Pinot Noir has been the parent of many of today’s top varieties through (probably) random wild crossing but those resulting successful varieties had to be identified and selected for propagation by humans.

Peter F May
Author of
PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine

The only problem I saw in your post was that bees may be utilized. Unfortunately grapes are wind pollinated, independent of insects.