Ives

            Ives is one of the oldest names in American grape lore, if not one of the most honored. Its origins are cloudy. It is commonly thought of as labrusca, but the Vitis variety catalog calls it an interspecific crossing, naming only one parent: Hartford, a labrusca cross with Isabella, which is itself a labrusca-vinifera hybrid. The trouble with this genealogy is that Vitis dates Ives from 1844, and Hartford from 1849. But it’s not totally off the mark, according to a 1928 paper by chemists at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, whose analysis led them to conclude that “the Ives grape is not a pure Vitis labrusca but probably contains some Vitis vinifera mixed with still another strain.”

            Well, anyway: If it quacks like a duck it is a duck, and you’d be advised to duck this grape unless you really enjoy that musky labrusca flavor. This wine comes from Bully Hill Vineyards, founded by a scion of the powerhouse Taylor family of Finger Lakes wine pioneers and one of the earliest champions of hybrid grapes in that region. They say it’s “bursting with native American fruit and floral essence;” I say it tastes like cough syrup. But it’s as sturdy as Madeira. My bottle hardly changed flavor in the several months it sat on the kitchen counter waiting for me to brave another taste.

Food pairing: Aspirin, the next time flu season comes around.