Wine Arcana

Grape

Sabrevois

Also known as ES 2-1-9

Sabrevois is a dark-skinned hybrid grape bred by Elmer Swenson in Wisconsin. Its winter hardiness helped it find a place in northern vineyards, including Québec, whose village of Sabrevois supplied its eventual name. Contemporary wines also connect it with the Finger Lakes.

Its colour can be much more substantial than its body or tannin. Harvest and extraction matter particularly because the grape's appealing berry fruit can be accompanied by increasingly pronounced smoky or savoury aromas.

Breeding and northern adaptation

Iowa State's cultivar review records Sabrevois as selection ES 2-1-9, from E.S. 283 × E.S. 193, the same parental combination that produced St. Croix. These are distinct seedlings with different growing and wine characteristics. The review traces Sabrevois to Swenson's work at Osceola, Wisconsin, and documents its later naming in Québec.1. Lisa Smiley and colleagues, A Review of Cold Climate Grape Cultivars, Sabrevois profile, revised 2016, pp. 105–106.

Iowa State's updated regional guidance includes Sabrevois among wine grapes suited to all parts of Iowa. It describes vigorous growth, early-to-middle season harvest, and useful disease resistance. That regional recommendation helps establish its practical northern role; individual vineyards still need to match growth and crop to their season.

Ripeness, colour, and aroma

The cultivar review describes modest sugar accumulation and relatively little body and tannin, even in deeply coloured wines. Its potential alcohol therefore differs from that of a grape accumulating more sugar at a comparable harvest stage. Blending can adjust the balance, while an earlier pressing offers a route to rosé.

Trout Brook Vineyard's grower account makes the harvest choice concrete. It describes a preference for picking before the smoky side becomes overwhelming, accepting less sugar in exchange for the aromatic balance it wants. The same account values lighter-bodied reds as well as blending uses.

A New York example

Jamie Goode's October 2026 account of Usonia identifies its 2024 Pompliano Purple as Sabrevois from biodynamically farmed fruit. The bottling places the grape within contemporary Finger Lakes wine culture alongside the region's vinifera and other hybrids.2. Jamie Goode, “Usonia, a really innovative wine project from New York's Finger Lakes,” 19 October 2026, 2024 Pompliano Purple description.

Read alongside Usonia's Steuben rosé, it also illustrates the range hidden by the word hybrid. Grape identity, fruit source, and cellar handling explain the difference between these individual wines.

Sources