Cascade is a red complex hybrid grape variety that was created by French

viticulturist Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

Albert Seibel Albert Seibel (1844–1936) was a French physician and viticulturist who made hybrid crosses of European wine grapes (''Vitis vinifera'') with native North American grapes. His crosses are known as Seibel grapes. Biography Seibel was born in Aub ...

in the early 20th century in Aubenas,

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.Rhône Valley. It has been commercially available in North America since 1938 and has since been planted in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(particularly

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

). However, in warmer climates the grape is highly susceptible to a number of grapevine viruses, which has discouraged plantings of the variety.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' pg 197, Allen Lane 2012

History and pedigree

Cascade is a

Seibel grape Seibel grapes are a group of wine grape varieties which originated with the work of Albert Seibel crossing European grape with American grape species to increase disease resistance. They were planted widely in France during the 1950s but have see ...

, being produced from a crossing of

Seibel 7042 Seibel may refer to: * Albert Seibel (1844–1936), a French physician and viticulturist * Cathy Seibel (1960–), an American federal judge * Carl-August Seibel (1872–1950), the founder of the German shoe industry * Edgar Seibel (born 1991), a ...

and

Gloire de Seibel ''Gloire'', meaning " glory", has been a popular name for French vessels. Naval vessels named ''Gloire'' * , an ordinary galley * , a 40-gun frigate * , an ordinary galley * , a 46-gun ship of the line * , a 40-gun ship of the line * , a 16-gun cor ...

by the French viticulturist Albert Seibel in the early 1930s. The variety was first released for commercial production in 1938. Known originally as Seibel 13053, the grape was given the name "Cascade" by the

Finger Lakes Wine Growers Association A finger is a limb of the body and a type of digit (anatomy), digit, an organ of wikt:manipulate, manipulation and Wikt:sensation, sensation found in the hands of most of the Tetrapods, so also with humans and other primates. Most land vertebra ...

in 1970.Lisa Smiley '
Cascade
"'' Iowa State University, 2008. Accessed: April 13th, 2008 The exact reasoning behind the name is unclear, with some winegrowers speculating that the name came from the way that the highly productive vine would have fruit "cascading off the vine" like a waterfall even from

water sprout Water sprouts or water shoots are shoots that arise from the trunk of a tree or from branches that are several years old, from latent buds.Hartmann, H.T.; Kester, D.E. 1983. ''Plant propagation: Principles and practices''. Prentice-Hall Inc., Eng ...

s and suckers.Lon Rombough ''The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture'' pgs 128, 181, 202 Chelsea Green Publishing (2002) Cascade is considered an inter-specific "complex hybrid" meaning that within its pedigree are grape varieties from several species of the ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

. Taken together the pedigree of Cascade includes varieties from the ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curre ...

'', ''

Vitis labrusca ''Vitis labrusca'', the fox grape, is a species of grapevines belonging to the ''Vitis'' genus in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The vines are native to eastern North America and are the source of many grape cultivars, including Catawba, Co ...

'', ''

Vitis rupestris ''Vitis rupestris'' is a species of grape native to the United States that is known by many common names including July, Coon, sand, sugar, beach, bush, currant, ingar, rock, and mountain grape. It is used for breeding several French-American hy ...

'', '' Vitis rotundifolia'' and '' Vitis lincecumii'' species. Seibel 7042 is a crossing of Seibel 5351 and Seibel 6268. Gloire de Seibel is a cross of Seibel 867 and Seibel 452. From these parent and grandparent varieties Cascade is descended from

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, Chasselas Musqué and the ''Vitis vinifera'' teinturier grape Alicante Bouschet (great-grandparents to Seibel 5351). Cascade also has extended relations with another ''vinifera'' teinturier

Alicante Ganzin Alicante Ganzin is a red French wine grape variety. Unlike most ''Vitis vinifera'' wine grapes, Alicante Ganzin is a teinturier with dark flesh that produces red juice. Most varieties used to produce red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syra ...

(grandparent to Seibel 452) and the

Munson grape Jaeger 70 (also known as Munson) is a hybrid of two American species of grape, '' Vitis lincecumii'' and ''Vitis rupestris'' developed by Hermann Jaeger (1844–1895), a Swiss-American who settled in Missouri. He named the successful hybrid for hi ...

(great-grandparent to Seibel 452). The

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...

-resistance rootstock variety Rupestris du Lot is also related to Cascade as a grandparent variety to Seibel 452.

Relationship to other grapes

In Canada, Cascade was crossed with the white

Villard grape Villard grapes are French wine hybrid grape created by French horticulturist Bertille Seyve and his father-in-law Victor Villard (father and grandfather of grape breeder Joannes Seyve). They include the dark skin Villard noir and the white-wine va ...

Seyve-Villard at the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario to produce the white wine grape

L'Acadie blanc L'Acadie blanc is a white Canadian wine grape variety that is a hybrid crossing of Cascade and Seyve-Villard 14-287. The grape was created in 1953 by grape breeder Ollie A. Bradt in Niagara, Ontario at the Vineland Horticultural Research Statio ...

Viticulture

Cascade is a very early ripening variety that can be very productive and high yielding. The color of the grape berry skins can have a bright blue hue.Appellation America '
Cascade
'' Accessed: April 13th, 2013 It is a moderately winter hardy vine able to withstand winter temperature down to . The grape carries strawberry notes and aromas. It bears heavily (over 50 lbs per vine is common) and in the opinion of some growers "can't be overcropped" (meaning it does not lose its varietal character with higher yields as other varieties such as Pinot Noir do). However, while its loose-berry clusters tend to have good resistance to fungal infections (such as downy and powdery mildew), in some climates the vine is highly prone to a number of soil-borne viral grapevine disease such as

tomato ringspot virus Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family ''Secoviridae''. It affects species of cucumber, tobacco, tomato, cowpea, among others. It causes ringspots in tobacco plants and raspberries, yellow bud mosaic in peaches, y ...

which creates yellow veins in the leaves, stunts the growth of shoots and causes fruit clusters not to set properly.

Wine regions

In 1975 there were 183 acres (74

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s) of Cascade planted in New York state but the relatively poor quality of wine produced from the grape and its susceptibility to grapevine disease has caused many producers to uproot those plantings. Today there are some plantings of Cascade in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

where the variety is usually ready for

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...

by mid-August. Cascade may be a useful grape in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S.

Styles

According to Master of Wine

Jancis Robinson Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, ComMA, MW (born 22 April 1950) is a British wine critic, journalist and wine writer. She currently writes a weekly column for the ''Financial Times'', and writes for her website JancisRobinson.com, updated daily. She ...

, Cascade tends to produce light bodied wines that are very low in

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

. While it is rarely made as a varietal, though it can be used in ''

rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin contact method. ...

'' production, it is often blended with other hybrid

grape varieties This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

such as Maréchal Foch and Baco noir which it contributes to the perfume

aroma of the wine The aromas of wine are more diverse than its flavours. The human tongue is limited to the primary tastes perceived by taste receptors on the tongue – sourness, bitterness, saltiness, sweetness and savouriness. The wide array of fruit, e ...

Synonyms

As a relatively recently created hybrid variety, Cascade is not known under many synonyms with only S 13053 and Seibel 13053 being recognized by the

Vitis International Variety Catalogue The Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) is a database of various species and varieties/cultivars of grapevine, the genus ''Vitis''. VIVC is administered by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding (''Institut für Rebenzüchtung Gei ...

(VIVC).

(VIVC)
Cascade
'' Accessed: April 13th, 2013

References

{{Hybrid grape varieties Red wine grape varieties Seibel grapes