Ives noir is a red

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

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

that is grown throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Named after its propagator, Connecticut wine grower Henry Ives, the grape's pedigree and exact origin are unclear. After

Prohibition in the United States The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, an ...

, Ives was a popular grape used in the production of

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

, port-style wines but saw its plantings steadily decrease throughout the 20th century as the vine's susceptibility to

air pollution Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

took its toll.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' pg 477, Allen Lane 2012

History and pedigree

According to 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 G ...

(VIVC), the grape was first developed in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

in 1844 from a crossing of an unknown ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...

'' species and Hartford Proflic (itself a crossing of an unknown ''

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, ...

'' vine and Isabella that was developed in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

(VIVC)
Ives noir
'' Accessed: April 20th, 2013

(VIVC)
Hartford
'' Accessed: April 20th, 2013 The National Grape Registry maintained by the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

lists 1850 as the release date. Writings from Henry Ives himself date the crossing to 1840. However, the earliest record of Hartford Prolific being cultivated dates back to 1846 with the VIVC dating the crossing even later, to 1849. This inconsistency puts the pedigree of Ives noir in question. In other writings, Henry Ives claimed that he cultivated the grape from a

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

of a ''

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

'' variety called either "Malaga" or "Madeira" but

ampelographers Ampelography ( ἄμπελος, "vine" + γράφος, "writing") is the field of botany concerned with the identification and classification of grapevines, ''Vitis'' spp. Traditionally this has been done by comparing the shape and colour of th ...

as early as the late 19th century found little evidence to support any ''vinifera'' pedigree or relationship to the Malaga wine grapes

Pedro Ximénez Pedro Ximénez (also known as PX and many other variations; Andalusian Spanish, Andalusian pronunciation ) is the name of a white Spanish wine grape variety grown in several Spanish wine regions but most notably in the (DO) of Montilla-Moriles. ...

and

Moscatel Muscatel ( ) may refer to any type of wine made from muscat grapes. In the United States, however, “muscatel” normally refers only to fortified wine made from these grapes. Fortified muscatel became popular in the United States at the end o ...

or the traditional Madeira wine grapes of

Malvasia Malvasia (), also known as Malvazia, is a group of wine grape varieties grown historically in the Mediterranean region and Macaronesia, but now grown in many of the winemaking regions of the world. In the past, the names Malvasia, Malvazia, ...

, Bual, Verdelho, Sercial, Terrantez and Bastardo. Employing an extensive set of microsatellite DNA markers, de Oliveira's research group in São Paulo, Brazil, revealed in a 2020 publication, that the Bordô hybrid cultivar (a.k.a. Gran d'Oro in Brazil) is identical to the Ives' Seedling cultivar (a.k.a. Ives noir) from the US. Dr. Jeronimo (Jerry) Rodrigues (South Africa) further analysed Ives' microsatellite DNA which can now be downloaded from the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) database (Maul and Röckel, 2015). He determined that Ives noir, which has long been thought to be a natural hybrid between a wild ''Vitis labrusca'' species and an unknown ''Vitis vinifera'' variety is, in fact, far more likely to be a hybrid cultivar resulting from a crossing between wild native American species involving mainly ''V. labrusca'' and ''V. aestivalis'', rather than ''V. vinifera''. Ives noir was widely established in the eastern United States by the end of Prohibition in the 1930s when the grape became popular with wineries making sweet fortified wines. However, by the end of the 20th century, plantings of the grape were declining significantly as the toll of

air pollution in the United States Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, Atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter, or biotic material, biological materials into the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms ...

resulted in crop failure for the sensitive vine.

Viticulture

Ives noir is a mid-ripening variety that usually ripens after Concord. The vine is very sensitive to air pollution, ozone damage as well as

sulphur Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical ...

-based sprays (such as the

Bordeaux mixture Bordeaux mixture (also called ''Bordo Mix'') is a mixture of copper(II) sulphate (CuSO4) and quicklime ( Ca O) used as a fungicide. It is used in vineyards, fruit-farms, vegetable-farms and gardens to prevent infestations of downy mildew, powder ...

used to combat powdery and

downy mildew Downy mildew refers to any of several types of oomycete microbes that are obligate parasites of plants. Downy mildews exclusively belong to the Peronosporaceae family. In commercial agriculture, they are a particular problem for growers of c ...

). When not grafted to more vigorous

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

, Ives noir tend to produce a shallow and weak root system that also makes the vine very susceptible to

water stress Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms ( ...

which may require

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

in drought conditions.

Wine regions

Today Ives noir is planted mostly in the Eastern United States and in the Southern States of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

where the variety is known as ''Bordô'' or ''Terci''. Plantings in

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

were significantly impacted by downwind air pollution from

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

but as Clean Air Act standards enforced by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

take effect, plantings of the variety have slowly started to recover with 50 acres (20

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

) of Ives noir in production as of 1996. Outside of New York there were 15 acres (6 hectares) of Ives noir in production in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, including some

old vine Old vine (, ), a common description on wine labels, indicates that a wine is the product of grape vines that are notably old. There is a general belief that older vines, when properly handled, will give a better wine. There is no legal or genera ...

plantings that were over 50 years old, as well as smaller plantings in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Styles and uses

In addition to

winemaking Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its Ethanol fermentation, fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over ...

, Ives noir is also used in

grape juice Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a juice, liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as ''must''. The sugars in grape juice allow it t ...

and jelly production. 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 ...

, the grape shares many similarities to Concord, including the characterized " foxy" note of ''Vitis labrusca'' grapes, but usually with a slightly lighter

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

. Ives noir is used as both a blending and

varietal A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...

grape making wines from a range of sweetness styles from dry to semi-sweet blush wines and to sweet fortified wines.

Synonyms

Over the years Ives noir has been known under a variety of synonyms including: Black Ives, Bordô or Terci Embrapa - Official Site
Accessed: December 26th, 2014 (in Brazil), Ives Madeira, Ives' Madeira Seedling, Ives Seedling and Kittredge.

References

{{American wine Red wine grape varieties Hybrid grape varieties