Collective term for a large number of French hybrids that were crossed between European and American varieties. They were created by the French grower Albert Seibel (1844-1936), in the commune of Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban (Département Ardèche), where a street is now named in his honour. He was one of the first in France to produce new varieties on a large scale in the truest sense of the word. This took place even before phylloxera reached France in the middle of the 19th century. When the cause of the vineyard decline was only recognised after some time, crosses between American and European varieties were one of the many (consistently unsuccessful) attempts to get to grips with the rapidly spreading catastrophe.
Breeding goals
Breeding objectives also included resistance to fungi, frost and earlier ripening. The Seibel varieties were named after their breeder with a serial number - later they were often given descriptive names. The American viticulture pioneer Philip Wagner (1904-1996) from the US state of Maryland was largely responsible for the spread of many Seibel varieties along the entire east coast of North America from the 1940s onwards. In the middle of the 20th century, there were still an incredible 70,000 hectares of vineyards planted with Seibel varieties in France, but today they have all but disappeared there. However, smaller populations still exist, mainly in North America on the east coast in the state of New York (Finger Lakes) and also in Canada (Ontario).
American hybrids
American hybrids by the US breeder Hermann Jaeger (1844-1895) were used for many Seibel varieties, above all Jaeger 70 (Munson). They appear in the breeding lists with No. 1 to 19975. Not all positions are filled, but there are thousands. Sounding names were later given to Aramon du Gard (p. 2007), Aurore (p. 5279), Bellandais (p. 14596), Cascade (p. 13053), Chancellor (p. 7053), Chelois (p. 10878), Colobel (p. 8357), De Chaunac (p. 9549), Flot d'Or (p. 2653), Flot Rouge (p. 1020), Gloire de Seibel (p. 5409), Othello Petit (p. 47), Plantet (p. 5455), Rayon d'Or (p. 4986), Roi des Noirs (p. 4346), Rosette (p. 1000), Rougeon (p. 5898), Rubilande (p. 11803), Salvador Noire (p. 128), Seibel 13666, Seinoir (p. 8745), Soleil Blanc (p. 10868), Subéreux (p. 6905), Verdelet (p. 9110), Vivarais (p. 2003).
French hybrids
Many belong to the so-called first generation of French hybrids, which were then used for further crosses of the second and third generation. These include Seyval Blanc (SV 5276), Villard Blanc (SV 12-375) and Villard Noir (SV 18-315) from the famous Seyve-Villard vineyard. Seibel vines were also used for over 30 new Landot varieties. The two Frenchmen Jean François Ravat and Jean-Louis Vidal, as well as the American Elmer Swenson, also used some Seibel vines.
Further information
See also under crossing, new breeding and breeding, as well as grape variety-related keywords under grapevine.
Image: By Anonymus - Portraits d'Ardéchois célèbres sur Medarus.org, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
