Oh, and here is a bombshell, or at least a little schrapnel.
MARCO POLO
I am doubting is Columbus
The scientific paper quoted earlier, well those things are peer reviewed before publication. For those who dont know, that means they are taken appart by similar knownledgables to ensure accuracy. They scrutise every aspects.
In the paper they quote 11 varieties they tested from all arround the world, and in all cases they quoted where from and the original parents.
BUT the MP parents are quote "unknown". Equally they quote the origins as the USA, which is most unusal, considering its susposed to be a China hop. This would have NOT been missed by the peer reviewers. Further I quoted some USA friends the smells and tastes, and they stated "sounds like simcoe hop to me". Now for those who dont know, simcoe hop can not be grown commercially by anyone. Its a registered variety that can only be grown under licence, and they dont give too many out.
Now we all know how good the Chinese are at copying things and making them their own.
Based on all this I have come up with three possibilities
1. MP is a wild variety from China, probably found growing in a USA based hop field.
2. MP is as stated earlier - columbus
3. MP is a registered variety based on something like simcoe, BUT as its "aquired", they are not saying so, for copywrite reasons.
Based on the scientific paper, I tend to favour option 3. as a distinct possibility.
It certainly can't be ruled out
Craftbrewer
Graham L Sanders
skype "Craftbrewer"
http://radio.craftbrewer.org