I think there is some unknown link to Catawba and

[Don Giovanni]

I think there is some unknown link to Catawba and Isabella : Finger Lakes Update 2009

Fascinating to see that Isabella is used and appreciated as a fine wine... it is a Hybrid ...Labrusca X vinifera...

I think there is some unknown link to Catawba and Isabella the time line is way too close as is the area...so who was this unsung hero that knew how to propagate grapevines ...???... was it just cross-pollination and birds eating the new DNA seeds and taking a @rap thus the new variety...???...Something to think about...

Finger Lake Update .

We came out of the ice age and summer slammed up went from 32 F to 95 F in 24 hours...the vines are having major bud swell...it's early so we started to snip the ends of the pruned vines again to fake them into shutdown...this will slow the bud-break by one week min...it's a very old trick I was taught...

Source Jancis Robinson

Isabella

sometimes Isabelle, widely distributed and widely planted vitis labrusca american hybrid of unknown origin. It is said to have been named after a southern belle, Mrs Isabella Gibbs, and to have been developed in South Carolina in 1816. It can withstand tropical and semi-tropical conditions and has been planted all over Portugal, Ukraine, Japan, and the southern hemisphere, notably in Brazil, where it is by a substantial margin the most common vine variety. In New York state, it was one of the first hybrids to be planted after phylloxera's late 19th-century devastation but it has largely been replaced by concord. New plantings were banned in France in 1934. The vine is high yielding but the wines are very obviously foxy.

Catawba

deep pink-skinned labrusca grape variety that was extremely popular in the 19th century and is still widely grown in new york state. Identified in North Carolina in 1802