Hybrid grape

created by a crossing Seyve-Villard 5276 with a cross Riesling × Pinot gris. During the first half of the 20th century, various breeding programs were developed in an attempt to deal with the consequences of globalization, which resulted in Europeans and European-Americans bringing the Phylloxera louse from North America to Europe, as well as several North American parasitic fungi - like black rot (Guignardia bidwellii), downy mildew (Peronospora), and powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator). Phylloxera devastated European vineyards throughout the late 1800s. While many hybrids were able to successfully resist Phylloxera, as well as the novel fungal pressures, European producers chose to graft their susceptible traditional, single-species European varieties onto North American resistant rootstock. However, hybrid grape varieties were introduced as a solution to many of the viticulture problems of shorter-season, cooler and more humid wine regions, such as those in the northeast and Pacific Northwest of North America, as well as to many other temperate, sub-tropical, and tropical climates in South America and Asia, such as in Columbia, Brazil, India, and China. From the 1950s onwards, grape varieties such as De Chaunac, Baco noir, Marechal Foch, Vidal, etc. have been a staple of the wine industries in Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, etc. Only since the 1970s and 1980s have vinifera varieties begun to displace hybrid grapes in this area. Even in those areas where Vitis vinifera now predominates, hybrid varieties still have "cult following" with some wine consumers. Furthermore, in some cases hybrid grapes are used to produce unique and exceptional products; for example, ice wine produced from Vidal blanc or Vignoles in Ontario and New York. The most planted grape in the world by area, Kyoho, is a hybrid, and the most planted grape in Brazil is a hybrid (Isabella). Hybrid grapes are expanding in traditional vinifera wine regions as well, because they can be easier to grow and can ripen earlier than vinifera (which reduces bird predation and reduces the risk of fruit hanging into the Fall rains), and because they typically have much more disease resistance (thereby requiring less spraying, which lessens tractor fuel usage and the volume of spray applications). Therefore, hybrid grapes are considered a "Green" (ecologically sustainable) alternative to vinifera grapes. ==Grapevine species==

. The best-known grape species in reference to viticulture include: • Vitis vinifera, the so-called European or wine grape, indigenous in the Eurasian area. Classed within this species are the best-known table and wine grape varieties such as Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot noir, Merlot and Gamay. • Vitis aestivalis, native to eastern North America. • Vitis rupestris, native to North America. • Vitis riparia (also sometimes known as Vitis vulpina), the "river bank grape", native to northeastern North America. • Vitis amurensis, the Asiatic grape species, native to Siberia and China. • Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadines, native to the southern half of the United States • Vitis labrusca, native to northeastern North America. Concord and Niagara are both interspecific hybrids with a large labrusca content. While rare, interspecific hybrid vines can result in the wild from cross-pollination. Due to the abundance of American Vitis species one finds such natural hybrid vines on the American continent. The majority of the well-known hybrid vines however, have been artificially created. The earliest named hybrid in America was the Alexander grape, discovered around 1740 near a vineyard planted for William Penn along the Schuylkill. and Chambourcin. ==See also==