In the course of time there have been several name changes, so confusingly many different botanical names occur in old sources. These are for example Vitis blandii Prince, Vitis Canina Raf., Vitis catawba Hort., Vitis ferruginga Raf., Vitis labrusca var. Subeden tata Fernald, Vitis labrusca var. Typica Regel, Vitis latifolia Raf., Vitis luteola Raf., Vitis sylvestris virginiana Bauh, Vitis taurina Walter, Vitis vinifera sylvestris americana Pluk, Vitis vinifera var. Labrusca Kuntze and Vitis vulpina Marshall. Trivial synonyms include Black Fox, Concord Grape, Fox Grape, Niagara Grape, Northern Fox Grape, Northern Muscadine, Parra Brava, Parron, Skunk Grape, Swamp Grape, Vid Silvestre, Vigne Lambruche and Vigne Cotonneuse.
The vine is found mainly in the east of the USA as far as the Mississippi and from southern Canada to Georgia deep in the southeast. The first descriptions mentioned a trunk diameter of 30 centimetres, which must have been very old plants. It prefers sunny locations on sandy or moist clay soils. It is extremely sensitive to lime, which makes it problematic for European soils. Resistance to both mildew and frost is good, but it is somewhat susceptible to phylloxera. Therefore, as a pure species, it is not suitable as a rootstock for grafting with European varieties. The berries or wine have a distinct strawberry aroma and the foxy (foxy note). This is why it is called foxgrape or strawberry vine.
Even new varieties with little cross-breeding have this more or less pronounced flavour. The cause is the black-red anthocyanin derivative malvidin-3,5-diglucoside, which occurs exclusively in Vitis labrusca. This makes it possible to clearly identify varieties crossed with Vitis labrusca in wine. Due to this somewhat austere and alienating aroma, especially for European tastes (which, by the way, is very much appreciated in Japan), it is hardly suitable for commercial wine production. Grape varieties with Vitis labrusca genes are therefore mainly used in the USA for the production of table grapes, sparkling wine, sweet wine, grape juice and jam.
By far the best-known Labrusca variety is Concord, from which around three quarters of all American grape varieties in the eastern USA are derived. Other varieties with at least proportions of Vitis labrusca genes include Agawam, Alden, Alexander, Allegro, Armlong, Aurora, Baco Blanc, Beauty of Minnesota, Beta, Black Defiance, Black Eagle, Blanc Du Bois, Bluebell, Bolero, Breidecker, Brianna, Brighton, Brilliant, Caberinta, Cabernet Cantor, Campbell Early, Carter, Catawba, Clinton, Concord, Conquistador, Cornucopia, Delago, Delaware, Diana, Dutchess, Elvira, Florental, Fredonia, Gill Wylie, GR 7, Hartford, Headlight, Hector, Helios, Herbert, Himrod, Iona, Isabella, Ives, Kiliansrebe, Kyoho, La Crosse, Lindley, Louise Swenson, Magnolia, Marquis, Melody, Monroe, Missouri Riesling, Moore's Diamond, Muscat Bailey A, New York Muscat, Niabell, Niagara White, Noah, Norton (Cynthiana), Ontario, Orlando Seedless, Othello, Pontiac, President, Prinzipal, Ravat Blanc, Ravat Noir, Reliance, Ripatella, Romulus, Salem, Schuyler, Seneca, Sevar, St. Pepin, Steuben, Sunbelt, Veeport, Winchell, Woodruff, Yates, York-Madeira and Zilga. Further information can be found under the keywords American vines, hybrids and vine systematics.
Isabella: Zeynel Cebeci / CC BY-SA
5 Labrusca varieties: Ursula Brühl, Doris Schneider, Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI)
