Isabella

Isabella is a grape variety of American origin, derived from the species Vitis labrusca, known as the fox grape. It is used for eating fresh, for juice and for wines with a strong and distinctive flavour, and it matters because of its hardiness and the way it spread to countries with very different climates.

History

For a long time Isabella was assumed to be a hybrid between a wild Vitis labrusca vine and a Vitis vinifera. The European ancestry was mostly inferred from its susceptibility to mildew and black rot, diseases to which American vines are generally more resistant. Later, microsatellite DNA analysis carried out by Dr Erika Maul's group at the Julius Kühn Institute in Germany confirmed the European contribution and identified the rare French white grape Meslier petit as the vinifera parent. It is thought to have arisen from chance pollination during the early attempts to establish European vines in America.

A popular account credits the discovery to a Mrs Isabella Gibbs of South Carolina in 1816, and the variety is said to take its name from her. This story circulates as popular tradition. A separate line of research, led by Jeronimo Rodrigues in Brazil, identified the American parent as Ives' Seedling, a variety born in the United States that passed on a null allele detected in the genetic analysis. Sources do not fully agree on where the first plants were found, as Virginia, Delaware and even Europe are mentioned.

In Western Europe the grape soon lost commercial importance, since its wines carry a pronounced labrusca flavour that many connoisseurs there find unappealing. France banned new plantings after 1934. Its high yields and tolerance of tropical and subtropical conditions, however, took it to Portugal, Bali, Japan and several southern hemisphere locations, such as Colombia and Brazil, where it is now a leading variety. In the United States it is grown only in small amounts, mainly in New York State, valued for its resistance to phylloxera and cold.

Its spread through the Soviet sphere was early and wide. It reached Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova from France by way of Odessa, which is why Georgians also call it Odessa. The Russian poet Osip Mandelstam described it as fleshy and heavy, like a cluster of night itself. Today it is also found on the southern shore of the Black Sea in Turkey, and in Australia around Port Macquarie, where it makes a dessert wine with its own character. In Switzerland, in Ticino, it is used to make grappa.

Culture

In Peru, where it is known locally as "Borgoña", Isabella is a popular table grape and the base of a sweet table wine. Its skin separates easily from the pulp, a trait noticed when eating it.

In the Caucasus it has a place in everyday life. In Georgia it goes by the name Odessa, and in Abkhazia it gives its name to radeda, a dry red wine. Along the Turkish shore of the Black Sea, Pontic Greeks from Trabzon used it to make a local wine called zamura. The berries are also used to prepare pekmez, a thick fruit syrup, and the leaves are used for sarma, the stuffed-leaf dish found across much of the region's cooking.

In Brazil and Colombia it is grown on a large scale and is one of the leading varieties in both countries.

The variety has more than a hundred aliases, among them Fragola, Framboisier, Pierce, Constantia and Moschostaphylo, and Căpșunică in Romania.

Trivia