Seyval Blanc

Seyval Blanc is a hybrid, and for a long time that was the only thing anyone said about it. It was bred in France in the early twentieth century by crossing European vines with American species, part of a wave of hybrids created to resist phylloxera and mildew. European wine law then turned against hybrids on quality grounds, and Seyval was effectively exiled from the appellation system.

It found work where the climate was too marginal for anything else. In England, before the warming that made Chardonnay and Pinot Noir viable, Seyval Blanc was one of the few varieties that ripened reliably and resisted the damp; it remains a mainstay of English sparkling wine, including bottles that have beaten far more famous competition in blind tastings. The same logic applies in New York State, Quebec and the American Midwest, where winter cold kills conventional vines outright and Seyval survives.

The wine itself is clean and citrus-driven, with grapefruit, green apple and a distinctly mineral, almost chalky finish. It has high acidity and very little aromatic personality of its own, which sounds like a criticism but is precisely what a traditional-method sparkling base wine wants: neutrality plus acid, onto which lees ageing can build brioche, toast and depth. Given three or four years on lees it develops a creamy weight that most people would not guess came from a hybrid.

Still versions exist and are usually unremarkable. The grape earns its place under pressure, and its reputation has been rehabilitated less by argument than by the results in the glass.