Bordeaux Braces for its First Hybrid Vintage | Wine-Searcher News & Features (2023)

Champagne has already done it. And now, this summer, Bordeaux, and Bordeaux Supérieur appellations are expected to receive authorization to plant and make wines from new disease resistant hybrid grapes.

They will include white varietiesSauvignac, Souvignier Gris and Floréal, but also the red hybrid Vidoc Noir, the Bordeaux wine council, the CIVB, said. The Médoc and Haut-Médoc appellations have chosen the same resistant grape varieties but also added Voltis, a white hybrid variety authorized in Champagne production, the CIVB told Wine-Searcher.

Could this be the timid start to a viticultural revolution which ends wine typicity in Bordeaux?

Faced with pressure to reduce the spraying of synthetic chemicals and the cost of organic production, together with the impact of changing climate on vineyards – as the high alcohol and low acidity levels of the Bordeaux 2022 vintage, tasted en Primeur attested – Bordeaux is taking climate adaption measures as it grapples with the onslaught of social and changing consumer demand, which have piled on commercial pressure on producers. With new generation hybrid wines popping up in supermarkets in London, NY and Frankfurt, and the Scandinavian wine monopolies turning to them for their green credentials, consumers, who may never have heard of them are now increasingly likely to taste them.

Moves in Bordeaux to incorporate hybrid grapes come as France's Institut National de l'Origine et de la Qualité (INAO), the country's agriculture governing body, said hybrid vines plantings in France had last year jumped by 46.7 percent or 552 ha to 1732 ha, between August 2021 and August 2022. During that period plantings of Floréal, one of the new French hybrids, almost doubled from 250ha to 452ha. Souvignier Gris remains the most planted hybrid grape (495ha).

Limited impact?

France's AOC (PDO) appellation bodies, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur, Médoc and Haut-Médoc, have requested hybrid plant authorizations from the INAO, through France's VIFA (Variétés d'intérêt à fin d'adaptation) program for developing grape varieties suited to climate change adaptation, which stipulates that hybrid grapes can only account for a maximum of 5 percent of a producer's planted vineyard area. Hybrid grapes can make up a maximum 10 percent of finished blends.

Although disease-resistant grapes are increasingly being authorized and planted in France, their use is severely restricted in AOC (PDO) appellations. They of course can be registered in the more flexible Vin de France classification.

In Germany and Italy, regional committees have to authorise the planting of hybrid grapes; once authorized, producers can plant as many disease-resistant vines as they wish according to hybrids association, Piwi International.

Jacques Gautier, the INAO's head of environmental affairs, disagrees that the VIFA programme is too restrictive. "The rules are not too strict; they allow for a significant development of the VIFA. Its more about the supply side issue of these new varieties," he told Wine-Searcher. Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur and Champagne have had their official requests (for the inclusion of resistant grapes) authorized by the INAO’s national committee, the INAO said.

"Champagne has already modified its Cahier de Charges [appellation specification] to permit new resistant grapes in the appellation, for Bordeaux, the period during which those opposing the INAO's vote has just ended," Gautier said.

The CIVB, meanwhile, told Wine-Searcher that it expected the INAO's final approval of a lengthy validation process to conclude this summer, allowing the Bordeaux and Medoc appellations to modify their Cahiers des Charges specifications on permitted grape varieties.

The INAO said French AOC Appellations Côtes de Provence and Cognac had also started the process.

The new generation hybrid wines

A sea of red grafted vines extends across the vast, humid greenhouses of Mercier, one of the world's biggest vine nurseries.

Located in the heart of France's Vendée region, north of Bordeaux, row upon row of potted vine plants is increasingly made up of a diverse number of contemporary disease-resistant hybrid grape varieties (crossings of Vitis vinifera vines with American or Asian wild vines), known in Germany as Pioneer Wines (Piwis) and in France as ResDur (Résistances Durables – a programme launched in 2000; it is only recently, due to lengthy validation process, that new "French" grapes that have emerged).

Disease-resistant hybrids may account for a small share of Mercier's 12 million vine plant sales a year, yet demand and production are growing, with planting progressing from the south of France to Bordeaux and north to Brittany and Normandy. Increasing demand means that supply cannot always be met.

Since 2020, Mercier has been the exclusive distributor of Sauvignac, a hybrid created by Swiss geneticist, breeder and producer, Valentin Blattner; it is gradually increasing its supply capacity. With Germany, Switzerland, France (both at national and regional level) and Italy all increasing production and breeding of hybrids, the race is now on the further develop hybrids designed according to specific climates in Europe – despite the bureaucratic obstacles and rules.

To this end, Mercier has a secured a co-development agreement with Blattner (who designs hybrids according to regional climates) to develop new hybrids. The company says 22 new hybrid varieties have been selected for further research.

A vertical tastings of hybrid wines from the 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages, at producer Ducourt, a 480-hectare estate spread across six Bordeaux appellations, revealed the aging capacity of Sauvignac.

Ducourt, a pioneer in hybrid production in Bordeaux, first planted disease-resistant grapes in 2014. It now has 14.7 hectares of them planted in several Bordeaux appellations and is ramping up production with 100,000 bottles made each year. The wines have been classified as Vin de France, as they are not yet permitted in Bordeaux AOC appellations.

Ducourt's Metissage Blanc wines (stainless steel production) show how grapes like Sauvignac can be made with relatively low alcohol and higher than current average Bordeaux acidity levels. It's a bright, aromatic wine, showing bright tropical fruit including pineapple. Granted, for some, the youngest Metissage Blanc maybe a one-dimensional wine with no aromatic complexity, yet the fleshy 2018 and 2019 show this grape variety can gain layers and texture, with bottle aging.

The wine was fermented in stainless steel. Being able to taste new grape varieties such as Sauvignac made using different methods, as already done at the DLR Institute in Neustadt, in Germany, would further show how and where they can be produced effectively. Whilst canopy management and fermentation temperature can shape the style of Sauvignac, yeasts play a key role in showing the versatility of the grape variety. Blattner says Sauvignac is either closer to Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc, according to the yeast selected for fermentation.

Since creating Sauvignac, Blattner says he's improved its resistance; while some hybrids have one resistant gene against one fungus, Sauvignac has two resistant genes against mildew strengthening its resistance. Those hybrids made with one resistant gene have a weakness: fungi can mutate and get round a single resistant gene.

"Next generation of resistant grapes will have three resistant genes against downy and powdery mildew," says Volker Freytag, owner of the Freytag vine nursery in Germany.

Tasting a Souvignier Gris (fermented in stainless steel) at Mercier reveals the structural quality of the grape variety; long, aromatic, and fleshy. Despite its growth in plantings, Floréal meanwhile showed less structural and aromatic complexity and length than the Souvignier Gris tasted at Mercier. (Disclosure: At Mercier, I was able to taste one sample of each of following grape varieties: Sauvignac, Floréal and Souvignier Gris).

New blends, new solutions

In Bordeaux, producers of Cru Classé wines – which account for about 5 percent of Bordeaux's wines production volumes – have not generally shown any appetite (at least publicly) or interest in planting disease resistant grapes. However, a spokesperson at Château de Fieuzal told wine-searcher that it was interested in hybrid grapes but lamented that the appellation rules of Pessac-Léogan did not permit the planting of hybrid grapes.

Producers in established wine regions can be reluctant to make changes that could threaten their identity.

Meanwhile the maverick Château Cazebonne producer, Jean-Baptiste Duquesne, author of Bordeaux, Une Histoire de Cépages (Bordeaux, a story of grapes) recognizes that hybrid grapes are the "future", even if he is not enamored by them. Rather than hybrids, Duquesne remains immersed in recovering and making wine blends from Bordeaux lost native varieties, several of which have shown they can each play a key role when grown in contemporary viticultural climatic conditions.

That said, efforts from Ducourt to make wines made from a blend of hybrids and indigenous grape varieties appear to have paid off. Ducourt's Le Chants des Sirènes, a pale pink blend happens to be made from Souvignier Gris and the Bordeaux indigenous variety Sauvignon Gris, a bright and layered, balanced wine.

"Sauvignon Gris has less acidity, more sweetness, and flavors of aromas of white flowers and citrus fruits. It blends well Souvignier Gris, which provides the wine with higher acidity levels and tropical fruit flavors," says Jonathan Ducourt, one of the estate's directors. Ducourt says blends of hybrid grapes and local grapes are a way of enticing distributors and consumers to engage with hybrid grapes; some might be put off by single-variety grapes. Crossing resistant varieties with indigenous grape varieties can be way of preserving typicity. Blattner has for instance, had success crossing native Cava grapes of Catalonia with a resistant variety, without changing the profile of the finished wine.

Ducourt is currently working on a new white blend called Le Chant des Sirènes Sauvignon & Co, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc with hybrids grapes Sauvignac and Muscaris.

Meanwhile, Le Chant des Sirènes Duo de Cabernet, will be made from Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cabernet Jura next year. The Cabernet Sauvignon will bring tannic structure and more complexity, but the Cabernet Jura has considerably lower alcohol and higher acidity levels. "In 2018, Cabernet Jura alcohol level was 13 percent, but our Saint-Émilion Bordeaux blend was 15 percent," Ducourt explains. "The blend of our Saint-Émilion 2022 is not yet done but we have tanks from 14 to 15.2 percent alcohol. Final blend most likely between 14.5-14.8 percent."

Red with a white wine profile

Metissage Rouge 2020 is red wine but as Ducourt points out, you would not be able to guess its geographical origin from tasting it. It is a red wine, but only in appearance. On the palate this fruit forward, round red with little, if any tannin structure, yet on the nose it has a profile of white wine; there is orange peel, white blossom, and stone fruit. "Bizarre!" jokes Ducourt. Bizarre, indeed. But in an intriguing way; tasting three vintages of the same wine shows how Cabernet Jura, a hybrid also created by Blattner, can age surprisingly well in bottle. The 2019 Metissage rouge has a smoky profile on the nose, with licorice flavors. Ducourt says that it has four times as many anthocyanins than the Bordeaux's classic red grapes.

Contemporary hybrid disease-resistant grapes are resistant to downy and powdery mildew and, in some instances, show greater resistance to black rot than the classic Vitis vinifera grapes.

"With disease-resistant grapes it is possible not to spray at all. We have two rows of varieties Cabernet Jura and Sauvignac which have not sprayed at all since they were planted in 2014. So far, these two rows have resisted well and do not show sign to struggle more than the rest of the vineyard plot," said Jonathan Ducourt.

"The non-spraying was part of the experimental protocol we set up with IFV (French Wine and Vine Institute). The rest of the vineyards are sprayed once or twice a year, again according to IFV recommendations." Ducourt said.

On disease resistant hybrid vines, Ducourt uses organic sprays (copper and sulfur) but sprays to 80 percent less on hybrid vines, compared with classic grape variety vines.

According to the Freytag vine nursery in Germany, which created the Cabernet Blanc hybrid, young consumers are more interested in new hybrids than older drinkers and likewise new cooler-climate viticultural areas like Britain, Scandinavia and Holland are far more open to them than established wine regions such as Bordeaux.

"Hybrid grapes are providing answers to today's environmental, political, and social questions," owner Volker Freytag said. "The wine industry needs this new impetus to take it forward; it can't always tell the same story."