Chelois Wine Information

Chelois - or Seibel 10878 - is one of the group of grapes known as hybrid grapes. They are grapes who were created by breeding French grapevines and American grapevines together to create a hearty grape with a combination of good flavor and winter-sturdiness.

In these terms Chelois is not meant for really cold plantings. While grapes such as St. Crois and Vignoles do well in frozen tundra, Chelois is usually counted as "less hardy" along with grapes like Chambourcin and Vidal Blanc. It's also sort of sensitive to disease.

Mr. Seibel was a plant breeder who developed a plethora of grape styles in the 1950s in France. His aim was to mix the strong winter-hardiness of American stock with the better flavors and aromas of French stock. In this case he erred on the side of flavor rather than easy growing. Chelois is found to make a fairly tasty wine, but can be challenging to grow. Even with its relatively good flavor, Chelois is primarily used as a neutral blending wine.

The parents of Chelois are Seibel 5163 and Seibel 5593. This makes it related to De Chaunac which also has Seibel 5163 as a parent. On the other side, Seibel 5593 is the child of Seibel 880 and Seibel 4202.

Interestingly Chancellor is the child of Seibel 5163 and Seibel 880. So Chancellor is also a direct cousin.

So on with the pedigree. Seibel 880 comes from Couderc 28-122 and Seibel 2003. I can't find the parents of either of these grapes. On the Seibel 4202 side, it comes from Couderc 28-122 and Dattier. Similar dead end. Wine Types Main Listing



All content on the WineIntro website is personally written by author and wine enthusiast Lisa Shea. WineIntro explores the delicious variety and beautiful history which makes up our world of wine! Lisa loves supporting local wineries and encouraging people to drink whatever they like. We all have different taste buds, and that makes our world wonderful. Always drink responsibly.