I don't think Durif was an intentional cross. Mr. Durif described his new variety as a "seedling of Peloursin". He never mentioned Syrah, so I don't think he ever knew that it was the pollen parent. I think he planted seeds from Peloursin fruit, evaluated the seedlings and chose one of them to release and name after himself. If he had made a deliberate cross between Peloursin and Syrah, he would have described it as such.

Most seedlings from a vinifera variety will be the result of self-pollination, but a few will be the result of pollination from other nearby vines. In a commercial, single-variety vineyard, nearby vines would be the same variety, but Mr. Durif was a nurseryman and would have had a lot of different varieties in his experimental vineyard (including, presumably, Syrah). So one would expect that some of his seedlings would be crosses between Peloursin and other varieties.

Carole
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Carole Meredith
Lagier Meredith Vineyard