Chancellor
Also known as Seibel 7053
Chancellor is a dark-skinned French-American hybrid grape, also known as Seibel 7053. It belongs to the older generation of hybrids adopted in northeastern North American vineyards. Its strong colour and productivity can be useful, while fungal disease and crop balance require particular attention.
A productive vine with disease constraints
Iowa State's cultivar review attributes Chancellor to Albert Seibel's breeding at Aubenas in France. It records early budbreak, considerable cropping potential, and susceptibility to both mildews. Cornell's older New York guide specifically warns about early downy mildew infection of the fruit.1. Smiley and colleagues, Chancellor profile, revised 2016; Pool and colleagues, Grape varieties for New York State, 1979.
These traits make crop load and disease management central to a planting's performance. Maintaining healthy foliage helps the vine ripen the fruit it carries, while early budbreak exposes young growth to spring frost.
A contemporary Finger Lakes blend
Usonia's 2025 Good Spirit makes Chancellor the largest component of a red blend with Baco Noir, Traminette, and Aromella. Its production account distinguishes the stages: Chancellor and the two white grapes were cofermented as whole clusters; Baco Noir fermented separately. The lots were blended after pressing and matured in stainless steel.
Cofermentation puts different grapes together during extraction and fermentation, whereas later blending combines wines whose earlier development was separate. The two approaches can coexist in one bottling. Chancellor's role in this wine also shows the continuing use of an older hybrid within the Finger Lakes, alongside recent breeding releases.
Sources
- Lisa Smiley and colleagues, A Review of Cold Climate Grape Cultivars, Iowa State University Extension, revised 2016, Chancellor, pp. 30–31.
- Robert Pool, Keith Kimball, John Watson, and John Einset, Grape varieties for New York State, New York's Food and Life Sciences Bulletin 80, July 1979, Chancellor profile.
- Usonia, “Good Spirit 2025”, blend and fermentation account, accessed 20 October 2026.