Is Petite Sirah a hybrid?
A. According to Dr. Carole Meredith: PS is not a hybrid in the sense it is used for wine grapes. PS is pure Vitis vinifera. In the context of wine, the term “hybrid” refers only to grape varieties that have American grape species in their ancestry, such as Seyval blanc or Marechal foch or Baco noir. Like every Vitis vinifera grape variety we’ve looked at so far, PS has as its parents two other varieties of Vitis vinifera.