Why do wines from this particular US region taste unlike anything else?

In the Finger Lakes region of New York State, I enjoyed wines that tasted unlike anything on the planet. Why is this?

−R.T., Spotswood, Vic

Most of the world’s wine is made from the European grapevine species Vitis vinifera. Chardonnay, shiraz, cabernet, riesling – every wine on your local bottleshop shelves – is from vinifera, the globally preferred species of wine vine.

However, there are many other vines that produce grapes that can be made into tasty wine, and the US has several that are natives. The species Vitis labrusca produces wines that were once widely consumed in northern America, such as concord and catawba. During the late 1800s, when phylloxera, the vine aphid, devastated Europe’s vineyards, Americans probably drank more labrusca wine than vinifera.

They taste like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. The most common aroma descriptor is “foxy” – not the most appetising adjective. You can still buy and try these wines today in the US if you look for them, but most concord is now used to make grape juice and jam.

When phylloxera killed most of Europe’s grapevines, scientists, and crackpots of all stripes, cast around for solutions, from fumigating the soil with gases, to flooding it, or spraying it with all manner of concoctions.

Finally, some bright spark thought: why is it that grapevines in the US thrive despite the phylloxera bug being endemic in their soil? Answer: those vines are resistant to it. It can live on their roots without killing them.

So they decided to import some labrusca and try grafting vinifera wood onto American vine roots. After all, grafting was, by then, in wide use with fruit trees. It worked, which is the reason the French, Germans, Italians and Spanish (and Americans) can still produce vinifera wines.

You can still get non-vinifera wines in the US, although they’re rare and very much out of fashion.

A Canadian friend says Hazlitt’s Red Cat – a sweet red blend of catawba and hybrid grapes – is “a taste I’ll remember when I’m dead”. They are interesting and we might hope they never disappear.

Got a drinks question for Huon Hooke? thefullbottle@goodweekend.com.au