Forbidden Fruit: American Grapes in France

The Drought is Shaping the 2021 Harvest

Temperatures this week in Sonoma were near 100 degrees again with no rain in sight. Fires north of here are still blowing smoke and ash in the sky over the valley although the smoke is nothing like what’s happening in the Lake Tahoe area and the Sierra Nevadas.

The smoke isn’t strong enough to affect the taste of the wine yet, in most places around here, but it’s enough to mess with your lungs and sinuses. It also leaves a yellow haze around the horizon which is disconcerting. It is a constant reminder that the threat of losing everything is always around you.

And, that’s not counting Covid. Workers in the wine industry get sick, too.

The winemakers and vineyard managers are under constant pressure to deal with the heat and the lack of water, while keeping their people safe from the virus. This can make for some long nights this time of year, trying to pick when it’s cooler and water when it won’t evaporate an hour later.

I might add that picking grapes by hand, like most Sonoma Vineyards do, is hard work even under good conditions. In this heat several groups have formed to advocate for the growers to negotiate times during the hottest part of the day to not work, and to try to protect pickers from heat stroke and dehydration.

Without water there is no wine. And, without water the wildfires in the mountains have grown to the second and third largest burns in recorded California history this year with all reports predicting it will get worse next year.

People in the industry are trying all kinds of creative ways to adjust to the new climate. Not just here, but overseas, too.

Some of those ways are not entirely legal.

Guerilla Winemakers : Forbidden American Grapes in France

“ ‘These vines ensure bountiful harvests, without irrigation, without fertilizers and without treatment,’ said Christian Sunt, a member of Forgotten Fruits, a group fighting for the legalization of the American grapes.” ---from The New York Times

A vineyard in the village of Beaumont, in the Cévennes, France planted in American hybrids. Hybrids thrive where traditional varieties and root stocks can’t survive the heat and drought. --photo by Andrea Montovani for the NY Times

Hérve Garnier’s “Memory of the Vine” in Beaumont, France. The association is dedicated to preserving and expanding American Hybrid grape varieties like Isabelle and Clinton (pronounced “clain-ton” and Jacquez that have been outlawed by the French government for decades. photo by Andrea Montovani for the NY Times

Americans near Paris

Most Americans have no idea that we almost wiped out the French classic vineyards in the mid 1800’s when American root stocks infected with the phylloxera root louse were imported and planted or grafted in the French vineyards. The French were not amused.

Phylloxera cost thousands of French vineyard workers to lose their jobs and lots of those workers got shipped off to Algeria (French colony at the time).

The resulting vineyards thrived and became the central enabler to the single largest ongoing wine scam in history when certain growers back in France figured out they could mix Algerian wine with real French wines and make cheaper versions of the great vineyard names.

Apparently, their memories were affected because the additional wine for the blends were left off the label for some reason. A translation issue no doubt. Profits ensued. Also, outrage if they were discovered.

I have often said France is the last bastion of pure capitalism in the world. Profit is all that matters. At least with people I dealt with. I was partner’s with three French brothers who actually cheated their own mother out of a silk factory in Lyon. One of them gave me perhaps the greatest unrequested lesson in life I’ve ever gotten. He told me, “If I lie to you, and you believe me, it’s your fault”.

I learned a lot in France.

But, there were other vintners who sought to make better wines in France by creating hybrids of American and French varietals (and root stocks). The resulting six hybrid grapes like Jacques (banned in 1934), Clinton and Isabelle (banned in the ‘50’s) were able to grow and thrive in hot, dry regions and terrible soil where most other crops, including traditional grape varieties couldn’t grow.

They grew the grapes on Arbors on the rocky hillsides and where they could, they planted potatoes in the ground below as a second crop to squeeze more money from a barren land.

French traditionalists were horrified. In the 1950’s the French government banned the six American hybrid grapes and ripped up the vineyards where they could find them. The government said it was because the American hybrids caused madness and were bad for you health.

They also said the wine sucked. I suspect profit may have been a motive the government didn’t mention---diluting the value of traditional varieties in classic regions would cost a lot of money in lost taxes and lost income both. But, that’s just me. The wine probably did suck.

“You can’t step in the same river twice”--Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher, c. 500 B.C.

The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself

Vines in France were frozen in late April this year, some areas are experiencing drought like Sonoma and Napa and the rest of the world. Major Chilean vineyards have already moved south (toward Antartica where it’s colder) because of the heat.

Vineyards in Oregon and Washington State are going up in price for the same reason as the heat drives some growers north toward the Arctic.

My nephew Justin works the Napa vineyards every day and knows an awful lot about growing grapes there. But he, like all the others, are having to look for new solutions, new sources of water and for some, new vineyards farther up the mountain sides.

The American hybrids are still illegal in France, but they’ve been adopted in Germany, Switzerland and other European countries. There are over 170 wine grape varieties in Italy already, so I’m going to guess they are experimenting with American hybrids too.

In the meantime, Jacquez and its American cousins are having a swell time in France, especially around the village of Beaumont and other parts of the Ardeche in central France where Hérve Garnier and his association are dominating the local wine market.

If you want to, you can join the “Memory of the Vine” group there for about $12 and get a bottle for yourself.