NY 73.136.17.

Our winemakers like NY 7301 renamed Noiret. It has a loyal following, commercial and amatear, as a varietal wine and as a blender.  Yes, We have made and tasted Noiret for 5 years. The wines exhibit berry and cherry characters often with red cedar, nice tannin balance and almost always a peppery character. It is one of the best red hybrid wine we have made. It can stand on its own as a varietal or as a blend component with other red hybrids and even viniferas. 

The variety has been under test for several years as of 2005. Cornell decided to release the variety for propagation so that wine could be made and be commercially available prior to naming the variety, which is scheduled to occur in 2006. We planted a small acreage in 1999. Last winter, 2004, in spite of the havoc created by Mother Nature (low mean killing temperatures), we measured only a 17% primary bud kill -(anything up to 20% is considered normal) so we had some good news! It was noticed that the variety, on it's own roots, was vigorous for the first few years and then started to decline indicating a possible susceptibility to phyloxera. The current recommendation is to graft the vine.

2003 was our first crop from a 4 yr old planting of NY 7301 (for short) at Fall Bright (Pa'tridge Run Farms). It has been slowly catching on and has gotten our winemakers' attention. However, our crop was shy this year and is a major disappointment to the dozen winemakers who got calls to cancel their order.

Next year, depending on crop projection, we may limit the size of an order to 135 pounds, so that more winemakers will have the chance to try this nice red. This red wine has full body with black pepper character and moderate tannin content.

The vintages of 2003 and 2004 were high acid winemaking challenges and a lot of winemakers are looking forward to making low acid wines this year. I borrowed this from an AWS presentation that Tom did last year (2004 or 2005). After his presentation he did a flight of tastings at the Annual Homewinemaers Seminar in Rochester, NY.

The pedigree of a grape: NY73.136.17 or is it NY 73.0136.17
by Tom Mitchell

NY73.136.17 is a hybrid cross of (NY33277 X Chancellor) X Steuben. Curiosity got the better of me (Tom), so, I decided to find some information on NY33277 an F2 parent of NY73.136.17 because I noticed NY33277 and Chancellor were the F1 parents of an un-named white hybrid NY65.0467.01. I looked high and low and could find no information on NY33277 - when in doubt contact an expert, so I e-mailed Bruce Reisch, the grape breeder at the Geneva Agricultural Experiment station, and put the question to him and here was the reply...INSERTED reply from Bruce Reisch:

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your question; I've wondered about NY33277 a bit myself. I believe it was discarded from the breeding program well before I came on board in 1980. So I did a bit of checking and here is what I found out:

NY33277 parentage - Seibel 6339 x NY10589

NY10589 = Golden Chasselas x Ripley

Ripley = Winchell x Diamond

Seibel 6339 has complex vinifera and American species ancestry. Wine of 33277 was first tested in 1953. In a letter from Chateau Gai (Ontario Canada?) it was rated as "Excellent". The 1960 sample was "spoiled" according to Willard Robinson's notes. It was then tested for wine quality 1962 to 1972. Wine was generally well rated with comments such as "fine body, good balance, good flavor and color, non-foxy nose, some astringency" and "herbaceous" in later years as the standards were raised. I found a note from Phil Wagner, Sept. 29, 1966: "Non-foxy nose, good flavor, clean and round with hint of tannin. The best of reds tasted."

In a 1972 note, John Einset wrote about the vineyard characteristics: "Very poor vines, severe winter injury, poor fruit condition sometimes." Disease resistance in the early days of the wine-breeding program was not the highest priority. It seems to me that NY33277 was used as a wine quality parent with some level of adaptation that was better than vinifera.

With the 1972 note from John Einset, it's pretty certain that NY33277 was not chosen as a parent for viticultural traits or cold hardiness. It's hard to guess what the breeders had in mind when each cross was made, but we can get a pretty good indication from the notes they left behind.

Hope this helps you fill out some background.

Best regards,

Bruce Reisch

...So now you know.

NY 73.136.17 is described as vigorous and moderately resistant to powdery mildew. The red wine has full body with black pepper character and moderate tannin content.

Wine panel ranking: 1985 - #2 of a 100, 1989- #8 of 40, 1990 - #1 of 32, 1991 - #1 of 24, 1992 - #2 of 17, 1993 - #1 of 18