Cayuga White

Cayuga White is a wine grape developed from crosses of the hybrids Schuyler and Seyval Blanc at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. It is a hardy vine with some bunch-rot disease resistance. In some climates it should be picked at low sugars to avoid overripe, sometimes labrusca-like, flavors; however this has not been observed in cooler climates such as the Pacific Northwest, where desirable, Riesling-type flavors are tasted in fully ripe Cayuga fruit, with no such undesirable flavors. Picked at the proper time, it can produce a very nice sparkling wine with good acid balance, structure, and pleasant aromas, or a fruity white wine similar to a Riesling. One advantage of Cayuga is that, if harvested unripe (e.g., in a shorter summer in cool climates), it can still make a good wine, albeit with more green apple flavors in that case.

This grape, when grown on mature vines, can produce astonishing yields. If allowed to set fully on thirty-year-old vines in Aurora, Oregon, Cayuga's yield has been measured at over 13 tons per acre, though in that case a "green harvest" (removing much of the fruit before the final phase of the ripening cycle) is advised, so that the vine can fully ripen the remaining fruit.

Cayuga is easy to make wine from. In cooler climates, it retains enough acid that a residual sugar level is advised, in order to achieve balance in the palate.

In one informal survey of grapebreeders who grow hybrid grapes and make wine from them, Cayuga was the most-popular answer to the question "Which hybrid grape is the easiest to grow and make good wine from?"

External links

• Cayuga White, the first of a Finger Lakes series of wine grapes for New York, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station paper