Cultivars (varieties)

 
Grapes in this trial are evaluated as 'Good' or 'Reject'.

​The ‘Good’ grape varieties are those that produce better and tastier berries. Brix values (% sugar) shown are the record for each variety - some years are lower than the values shown.

The ‘Reject’ grape varieties are those that are unhealthy, or rot, or do not ripen on our site, or have unsatisfactory taste under 'No-spray' conditions.

Evaluation is an ongoing process during the course of these trials and categorization as 'Good' or 'Reject' should be considered preliminary until the completion of the study in 2023.

The success or failure of grape production depends heavily of the selection of appropriate varieties for your site. Pick the wrong variety and all your grapes will rot.

Describing taste is admittedly personally subjective: unsatisfactory, poor, fair, tasty, very tasty, delicious, best.

Wine grapes can also be used for Table/Juice/Jam/Freezing.

Disease and pest pressure vary from year to year, so some years produce better grapes than other years.

There are tens of thousands of cultivars (varieties) with 79 official species of the genus Vitis (grapes).

The exact number of cultivars is hard to pin down, since new ones are created or discovered every year.

The Vitis International Variety Catalogue lists 23,000 grape cultivars. However, I searched for several in my study but they are not in this database. It is an ambitious project to list all the cultivars world-wide and I praise their efforts on this.

In the USA, there is also the National Grape Registry which can help you track down grape varieties in the USA.

So with tens of thousands of cultivars, how did I decide which ones to select for this study.

First of all, only a thousand or so are utilized commercially around the world. To make my selection, for the past few years I searched for vines available for sale in the USA (importing vines from other countries requires long periods of quarantine and I do not have the time or interest for that).

Next, I looked for cold-hardiness and disease resistance. Many publications online were useful to this end, especially those by university extension services. This narrowed my list down to about 120 cultivars to be grown for this study.
Each cultivar has desirable characteristics and different uses - red wine, white wine, table grapes (a few of which can store for 6 months under refrigeration), jam grapes, juice grapes. Also, for making stuffed grape leaf dishes, the taste and texture of grape leaves varies widely among cultivars.

Some of these grapevines are already planted and producing; the remainder will be planted in Spring 2015-2018. Most cultivars require 3 years before they begin producing grapes and 5 years for full production.

​Many wine grapes can also be used as table grapes.
Red wine grapes have higher sugar content and small berries yielding a higher ratio of skin to flesh. The skin imparts color and flavors into red whites, so more is better and smaller berries provides this.White wine grapes are selected primarily on the taste of the wine produced.
Some red, white and blue grapes make unsatisfactory wine, but are excellent for fresh eating, freezing, jam, and/or juice.

Below are the cultivars under study, categorized by usage - many of the wine grapes can also serve as table/juice/jam grapes. All these cultivars are disease-resistant and zone 3-5 hardiness:

Color Code:
Bold Blue – appears promising, tasty berries with less disease than others.
Light Blue – too early for evaluation.
Gray  REJECTED, due to excessive disease that destroys berries. or poor tasting grapes despite healthy plant and berries.


Red Wine
America (REJECTED, due to bad tasting grapes, however, very healthy plant and berries)
Arandell – too early for evaluation
Baltica – very early, very tasty
Cascade (Rosé) – productive, tasty
Castel 19-637 (REJECTED, diseased)
Corot Noir (REJECTED, diseased)
Crimson Pearl (REJECTED, diseased)
DeChaunac (REJECTED, diseased)
Delicatessen - too early for evaluation
DM 8521-1 – too early for evaluation
ES 10-18-20 - too early for evaluation
Francis – wine has mild cherry aroma, delicious fresh, some Anthracnose
Frontenac – delicious fresh, reported to make excellent wine
Geneva Red (REJECTED, doesn't ripen on my site)
Gertruda (red berries) – Rose’ wine, too early for evaluation
Jukka (ES 5-4-16) – too early for evaluation
Landot Noir (REJECTED, very low vigor)
Laurot (REJECTED, diseased)
Leon Millot – beautiful grape bunches, delicious, productive
Lomanto - too early for evaluation
Marechal Foch – delicious fresh, said to make good wine but fussy
Marquette (REJECTED, diseased)
Michurinets (REJECTED, diseased)
Mystic Eyes – very early and delicious fresh, small clusters so use more canes
Noiret – (REJECTED, doesn't ripen on my site)
Norton (Cynthiana) – taste is fair, somewhat diseased, said to make good wine
Oberlin Noir – beautiful grape bunches, delicious, productive
Petite Pearl – very healthy, beautiful grape bunches, on the tart side eaten fresh, said to make excellent wine
Regent – too early for evaluation
Sabrevois – fair taste, reportedly makes decent wine
Skandia – too early for evaluation
St. Croix – too early for evaluation
St. Paul – tasty, reportedly makes good wine, diseased leaves
St. Vincent – too early for evaluation
Verona – too early for evaluation
Vincent (REJECTED, diseased)
Wine King– beautiful grape bunches, delicious, productive

 
Concord Wine/Jam
Alwood (REJECTED, diseased - Anthracnose)
Bluebell – Delicious fresh and jam, productive
King of the North – tasty, very productive
Polar Isaura – too early for evaluation
Sheriden  (REJECTED, diseased, does not ripen)
St. Anna – too early for evaluation
Steuben – beautiful grape bunches, delicious, productive, for table, juice, wines: Concord, rose', blush, white
Sunbelt (REJECTED, healthy but doesn't ripen on my site)
Wild Blue (REJECTED, diseased)

 
White Wine
Adalmiina – best taste, one of the tastiest of the white grapes
Alpenglow (ES 6-16-30) – too early for evaluation
Aromella (REJECTED, diseased)
Brianna – too early for evaluation
Brilliant - too early for evaluation (Rose' wine)
Cayuga White (REJECTED, diseased)
Delaware (REJECTED, diseased)
Clondike – very tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine
Dilemma – too early for evaluation
ES 10-18-14/15 – delicious, too early for evaluation
ES 10-18-30 – delicious, too early for evaluation
Frontenac Blanc – too early for evaluation
Frontenac Gris - (REJECTED, semi-healthy but not very tasty fresh nor is wine)
Geisenheim 318 (REJECTED, diseased)
Itasca – too early for evaluation
Jubilee of Swenson – too early for evaluation
Kay Gray (REJECTED, healthy but not very tasty)
L'Acadie Blanc – very tasty, healthy, productive
La Crescent (REJECTED, diseased)
Louise Swensen – too early for evaluation
Minnesota Emerald – very tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine, berries cracked after 2017 Fall rains
Mrs. Munson – Muscat-like, too early for evaluation
Monastery Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
New York Muscat  (REJECTED, diseased)
Orion (REJECTED, diseased)
Osceola Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Petite Amie – very tasty, healthy, productive
Prairie Star (ES 3-24-7) – too early for evaluation
Prestige – very tasty, some mildew on stems
Ravat 34 (REJECTED, diseased)
Reform– too early for evaluation
Sandy Moon – tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine
Solaris - too early for evaluation, delicious
Swenson White (REJECTED, diseased)
Traminette (REJECTED, diseased)
Valvin Muscat, on 101-14 (REJECTED, diseased)
Valvin Muscat, on 1003P (REJECTED, diseased)
Vidal Blanc (REJECTED, diseased)
Wild White (REJECTED, healthy but doesn't ripen on my site)

 
Table/Freeze/Juice/Jam
Alden (REJECTED, diseased)
Beta – tart fresh, great jam, productive
Caco (REJECTED, diseased – Anthracnose)
Campbell Early – early, delicious large berries
Candice (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Chontay (blue) (REJECTED, diseased)
Concord Seedless (blue) - tasty, small berries
Edelweiss (white)
Everest Seedless (NY98.0228.02) (blue seedless, very large berries)– too early for evaluation 
Goff (REJECTED, very low vigor, diseased)
Himrod (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Icydora (white)  – too early for evaluation
Interlaken (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
John Viola (REJECTED, too tart)
Jupiter (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Lakemont (white)(REJECTED, diseased)
Lorelei – best taste, one of the tastiest of the white grapes, said to produce ‘weird wine’
Marquis (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Mars (blue seedless) (REJECTED, Diseased)
Montreal Blues (ES 6-4-47, blue seedless) – tasty, productive
Moored (red) (REJECTED, diseased)
Neptune (white seedless) (REJECTED, many years before grapes, then all grapes rotted)
Petite Jewel (Seedless) – too early for evaluation
Price (REJECTED) – Low vigor, trunk dies back over winter
Reliance (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Somerset Seedless – small berries, tasty, uneven ripening, variable disease loss
Spartan Seedless – tasty, medium-sized berries
Suffolk Red (REJECTED, diseased)
Swenson Red (REJECTED, diseased)
Thomcord (REJECTED, diseased)
Trollhaugen – too early for evaluation
Vanessa (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Venus (blue seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Wapanuka – too early for evaluation
Worden – fair fresh, great jam, productive, some disease
Yates (red) (REJECTED, difficult to root and transplant, several efforts unsuccessful)
Zilga – too early for evaluation


Click link to download a PDF of the above cultivar list, Table of No-Spray Grape Trials