Seven years ago, when we purchased a horse farm in Collegeville to plant a vineyard and start a winery, we debated which grape variety we should plant. Our climate is not optimal for grapes, and neither is our soil. In addition, the farm is located in a residential area, and we wanted it to have a minimal impact on the environment. This is where a little-known grape variety called Chardonel (no, this is not a spelling error) comes into the story. 

Those who frequent wineries in Pennsylvania or New Jersey have likely come across wines made from grape varieties rarely found in wine stores such as Chambourcin, Marechal Foch, or Vidal Blanc. Those grapes belong to a group of grape varieties known as the French-American hybrids. They were created by mating grape varieties native to North America with European grape varieties known to most wine drinkers like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay.

Whereas those varieties are now primarily grown in the Northeast and Midwest United States, they were first conceived in France about 150 years ago. An unfortunate decision by a French farmer to import native American grapes in 1858 caused the obliteration of most of the vineyards in Europe several decades later. A tiny insect called Phylloxera hitchhiked with the imported native American vines. This American insect, which feeds on grape vine roots, quickly spread throughout Europe. Native American grapes “learned” how to cope with Phylloxera, but the European grapes proved extremely susceptible to this insect. To save the wine industry in Europe at the end of the 19th century, scientists in France began to mate European grapes with native American grapes, hoping to breed in a natural resistance to Phylloxera.

Although they successfully developed new French-American hybrid varieties with improved resistance to Phylloxera, they ended up adopting an entirely different solution to their Phylloxera problem. A new method of grafting European grapevines on top of rootstocks belonging to native American vines gave European vintners an optimal solution. On one hand, the grafted vines were fully resistant to Phylloxera, and on the other hand, they retained the flavors of their traditional varieties. Although the French-American hybrids were abandoned by their French developers, they found a home here in the Northeast of the United States. Local wine growers, myself included, prefer these varieties because they are better adapted to our climate, soil, and local pests than European varieties. Moreover, they offer unique flavors and better winemaking characteristics than native American grapes. New hybrid varieties are now being developed by American research institutes. In fact, some of our most popular wines are made from our estate Chardonel grapes, a hybrid developed by Cornell University researchers, and Marquette, a grape variety developed at the University of Minnesota.