On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, david wrote:

I grow two vines here (NW Brittany - cf W of England climate) outdoors,
against a wall, and they are tremendous: Chasselas for white grapes, Aladin
for black. Everyone round here uses Chasselas.

That's interesting. I didn't know that Chasselas was grown in Brittany.
I have a Chasselas against my house in Normandy and from which I have
taken cuttings in order to establish a vineyard. It isn't a great grape
for wine-making but at least it ripens satisfactorily in a northern
climate. Last year it produced a very nice wine - the juice had an
initial gravity of 1.074 which meant I didn't have to add any sugar.

Aladin is resistant to several diseases, especially mildew (the French call
it mildiou - is it blight?),

Mildew is a kind of fungus. There are two kinds which attack vines:
downy mildew which should be treated with dithane, and powdery mildew
which is treated with Bordeaux mixture. They need to be sprayed every
ten to fourteen days except when flowering.

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