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A Traminette grape cluster
Traminette, a grape hybrid from Cornell University's Agricultural Experiment Station, has been given the designation of the state's first signature wine.
The state, however, is not New York, but rather Indiana.
More than 20 of Indiana's wineries bottled the floral, white varietal last year and five won medals for it at the Indy International Wine Competition in June. The state wine industry made it their signature wine just in time for the holiday wine sales period.
A marketing campaign, "Try on Traminette," will be used to promote the wine. The state has 43 wineries, with seven more scheduled to open next year, according to the Indiana Wine Grape Council.
Traminette is a cross of the German Vitis vinifera cultivar Gewürztraminer and the French-American hybrid Joannes Seyve 23.416 made in 1965 by H.C. Barrett. He sent the seed to the Cornell facility for development in its grape breeding program. The result was a grape with excellent wine properties, more hardiness than its parent Gewürztraminer, and partial resistance to several fungal diseases. It was released in 1996.
Although some New York wineries produce some excellent Traminettes, the Empire State's signature wine is Riesling. Traminette became a particularly favorite in Indiana where soil and climate helped it flourish. The version from the Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN, was named best of the varietal at the Indy competition, one of the world's largest.
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