Cascade (grape)
Cascade is a red complex hybrid grape variety that was created by French viticulturist Albert Seibel in the early 20th century in Aubenas, Ardèche, in the Rhône Valley. It has been commercially available in North America since 1938 and has since been planted in Canada and the United States. However, in warmer climates, the grape is highly susceptible to a number of grapevine viruses, which has discouraged plantings of the variety.
History and pedigree
Cascade is a Seibel grape, being produced from a crossing of Seibel 7042 and Gloire de Seibel 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 in 1970. 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 sprouts and suckers.Cascade is considered an interspecific "complex hybrid", meaning that within its pedigree are grape varieties from several species of the Vitis genus. Taken together the pedigree of Cascade includes varieties from the Vitis vinifera, Vitis labrusca, Vitis rupestris, 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, Chasselas Musqué and the Vitis vinifera teinturier grape Alicante Bouschet. Cascade also has extended relations with another vinifera teinturier Alicante Ganzin and the Munson grape. The phylloxera-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 Seyve-Villard at the University of Guelph Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario to produce the white wine grape L'Acadie blanc.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. It is a moderately winter hardy vine able to withstand winter temperature down to. The grape carries strawberry notes and aromas. It bears heavily and in the opinion of some growers "can't be overcropped".However, while its loose-berry clusters tend to have good resistance to fungal infections, in some climates the vine is highly prone to a number of soil-borne viral grapevine disease such as tomato ringspot virus which creates yellow veins in the leaves, stunts the growth of shoots and causes fruit clusters not to set properly.