Proof that you can find anything on YouTube

Here's a video snippet of an Australian fellow trimming cane-pruned chambourcin. For a long time I never saw this varietal outside eastern US and Midwestern vineyards, but I started to hear snippets of its use to make Champagne-style wine Down Under. There's also a biodynamic vineyard in Colorado's West Elks AVA growing chambourcin at one of the highest elevation vineyards around.



This is one of my favorite hybrid varietals, but our chamb. vines were slammed by the freeze this year. I may not harvest much of a crop in the test vineyard. I'm leaning toward vinifera in my commercial-size planting because of the higher market value, but I still appreciate some of these unfairly maligned hybrids. Some hybrids are clearly inferior, but chamb. is not one of those. I have a feeling I'll someday be tending a decent-sized block of chambourcin.