Jacquez

Jacquez is a black American grape, listed in VIVC with Lenoir and Black Spanish among its synonyms. The old literature gave it as aestivalis crossed with vinifera, and VIVC lists no DNA check of that pedigree. In the Gironde the earliest record in my library is the 1881 International Phylloxera Congress in Bordeaux, whose commission saw it planted for wine at Langoiran, Yvrac, Vayres, Cenon, and Nérigean, and judged the young Jacquez in M. Sursol’s nursery at Cenon remarkable. The same visits counted the cost of a damp climate: at Yvrac and Vayres anthracnose and mildew had struck it hard, and M. Piola told the congress it was very subject to both. Pierre Viala, the plant pathologist, drew the conclusion in Les maladies de la vigne (1893): “In the Gironde and in damp climates, Jacquez had to be given up” («Dans la Gironde et sous les climats humides, le Jacquez a dû être abandonné»).

As a rootstock its story went on. In 1886 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, recorded that Auguste Despujol, one of the first in the Gironde to graft fine French vines on American roots, had renewed Château-Tambourlan at Génissac with merlot, bouchet, and malbec “grafted on jacquez, riparias, and noah” («greffés sur jacquez , riparias et noah»). Their 1893 edition gave its rule: fairly good affinity with the cabernets, though its vigor often weakens after grafting. In 1922 the guide recorded that on the slopes of the right bank of the Garonne the only rootstocks used at the start had been Riparia-Gloire, Vialla on the plateaus, and Jacquez in certain limestone parts.

Oldest record in my library: Compte rendu général du Congrès international phylloxérique de Bordeaux, 1881