As you go east and pass over the Rockies into the American Midwest and East, the situation changes in one very dramatic way. The winters become considerably colder with subzero temperatures common.
So, the Hybrids are passable if one can make and sell the wine quickly. We would always try to have the majority of the wine sold before it was 9 months old. If you get stuck with older inventories, then you have problems.
1. It is very disease resistant2. It is very winter hardy 3. It American parentage is unique, totally unlike any other vine ...thus ....3. It is the only “native” American vine that makes a dry European style wine. For us this made Norton the obvious choice (really the only choice), as the grape to use to breed with Cabernet and Zinfandel.
Everyone who has every grown Norton has planted some seeds hoping to get a better vine. No one has every succeeded … up until now.
The DVR Vines -
Like its parent, Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine of Crimson Cabernet tends to be highly reflective of the individual terroirs and vintage years in which the vines are grown. Its rich crimson colored wine has big fruity flavors when young, but unlike Cab it does not require extended aging and can be bottled and enjoyed after only a year or two. Although rich in middle tannins, the wine is remarkable smooth and velvety with a clean pleasant finish.
Crimson Cabernet was developed in Davis, California, by Lucian Dressel with the advice and guidance of Dr. Harold Olmo and the staff of the USDA Germ Plasm Repository. The vine is covered by a US Patent owned by Davis Viticultural Research, a private corporation that is not directly affiliated with any educational or governmental institution. The goal in creating Crimson Cabernet was to breed a grape that would make a wine that was totally Vitis vinifera-like in quality, yet was able to withstand the greater disease pressures and harsher weather conditions which in much of the US makes vinifera wine growing extremely difficult, or impossible.
In the vineyard, Crimson Cabernet vines have proven to be very resistant to such foliar diseases as powdery mildew, black rot, and bunch rot, as well as the vine diseases crown gall and Pierce’s Disease. It is also grown on its own roots since they have proven to be resistant to Phylloxera.