It is very disease resistant to the typical mildews and has shown no problem on leaf, canes or berries over the past few years. This follows it's performance at vineyards on Vancouver Island and the wine islands. It buds out early and could be a problem at sites prone to late frosts but at out site it seems to bud out with Leon Millot and not as early as Castel.
It has strong vigorous growth, and is somewhat trailing in habbit rather than having classic upright growth. The leaves and canes are reminiscent of kuhlman hybrids (Foch. Leon Millot etc.). The grapes are small as are the clusters, two per shoot, but I've heard from the supplier that there can be more.
The variety is not an over producer but apparently consistent and will ripen its grapes in very short seasons less than 150 frost free days. However, like Riesling it can be harvested early in this time period or left to hang and continue to ripen. Grapes can attain high sugar of 23-24 brix, but a little less is common in the shorter season. This is among the best sugar accumulation for such short season white varieties. The resulting juice chemistry is good for making wine.
I recently tried a Petite Milo/Epicure (epicure is another Blattner variety) blend that was crafted by Paul Troop of Salt Spring Island. The wine had strong tropical fruit aromas and flavour reminiscent of Riesling and Gewurztraminer. I've been told this is what the variety should taste like, perhaps a little more Riesling like. In any event the wine was excellent. It also received a silver medal at the all Canadian wine competition.
I am impressed with this variety so far. It is the best of the three Blattners we are growing, (Petite Milo, Cabernet-Foch, Cabernet Libre) for our site and look forward to seeing how the grapes come off the vine this year. We've got about 15 clusters this year and this will give us an idea of ripen times and sugar/acid balances in our short season.
