(Wine-Searcher) - Recent user feedback prompted a discussion at Wine-Searcher regarding a range of viticultural terms.

 

A user approached Wine-Searcher recently and queried whether the Niagara grape variety is a hybrid or a crossing. The answer, at least as I understand it, to that particular question is "hybrid". But it prompted a request to write a short piece to briefly define these and a few other key vine-related terms.

Vitis vinifera and other vine species

There are around thought to be as many as 10,000 varieties of wine-producing grapevines, of which around 1500 are used on a commercial scale. Vitis vinifera is the vine species from which the vast majority of quality wine grapes belong.