Cultivars (varieties)
Grapes in this trial are evaluated as Good or Rejected.
The Good grape varieties are those that produce better and tastier berries.
The Rejected grape varieties are those that are unhealthy, rot, do not ripen on our site, or have unsatisfactory taste under no-spray conditions.
Photos of the varieties are pictured with brief descriptions, brix values (% sugar), and observations, in these sections of this website:
Concord-Wine Grapes
Red-Wine Grapes
Table Grapes
White-Wine Grapes
Brix values vary from year to year on each variety. As an example, 20 brix means the grape juice contains 20% sugar. Brix values between 20 and 28 are ideal for wine though you can get by with as little as 15 brix. Under 15 brix the grapes are not ripe and the taste reflects that.
Brix values shown below each photo are the highest brix values obtained over the years. I use a brix refractometer to measure the brix values. To get a measurement, I crush and mix the juice of 30 to 60 grapes. Some vines may still have low production, so this quantity may not be available, and I use what I can even if it is only 1 or 2 grapes. The ideal is 30 to 60 grapes to obtain a good statistical measurement.
Another measure that is used is the acid level in grapes which goes down as the grape ripens and sweetens. Acidity is more time consuming to measure and I do not measure and record these, but rely on brix level and taste.
Evaluation is an ongoing process during the course of these trials. Categorization as Good should be considered preliminary until the completion of the study in 2023. When a vine is categorized as Rejected, it is pulled from the ground and no longer under consideration.
The success or failure of grape production depends heavily upon the selection of appropriate cultivars for your site. If you pick the wrong variety, your grapes will rot under no-spray conditions, as can be verified in this study.
Describing taste, admittedly, is personally subjective. Therefore, I have selected the following adjectives to best describe my personal opinion of the grapes I have harvested under less than ideal growing conditions: unsatisfactory, poor, fair, tasty, very tasty, delicious, best. These adjectives are used throughout this website. Grapes are rejected if they are determined to be unsatisfactory, poor, or fair.
In addition to their intended use, wine grapes can also be used for table/juice/jam/freezing.
Since disease and pest pressure vary from year to year, 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 this database, for cultivars in my study, but many are not included. It is an ambitious project to list all the cultivars world-wide and I praise their efforts to keep this as up to date as possible.
Additionally, the National Grape Registry can help you track down grape varieties grown in the USA.
So, with tens of thousands of cultivars, how did I decide which ones to select for this study?
First, only a thousand or so are utilized commercially around the world. To make my selection, I narrowed my search 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-hardy and disease resistant varieties. Many publications online were useful to this end, especially those provided by university extension services. Over several years, I narrowed down my study to 122 cultivars.
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, and 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 producing; the remainder were planted in Spring 2018. Most cultivars require 3 years before they begin producing grapes and 5 years for full production.
In addition to wine production, many wine grapes can also be used as table grapes.
Red wine grapes have high sugar content and their small berries yield a higher ratio of skin to flesh. Since the skin imparts color and flavors into red wines, more is better; therefore, the smaller berries better provide this proportional relationship.
White wine grapes are primarily selected for the taste of the wine they produce.
Some pink, red, white and blue grapes make unsatisfactory wine, so they are grown for eating fresh, 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 in hardiness.
Color Code:
Bold Blue – appears promising, tasty berries with less disease than others.
Light Blue – too soon 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 (REJECTED, grafted, died)
Baltica - too soon for evaluation
Cascade (Rosé) – productive, tasty
Castel 19-637 (REJECTED, diseased)
Corot Noir (REJECTED, diseased)
Crimson Pearl (REJECTED, diseased)
DeChaunac (REJECTED, diseased)
Delicatessen - too soon for evaluation
DM 8521-1 – too soon for evaluation
ES 10-18-20 - too soon for evaluation
Francis – too soon for evaluation
Frontenac – delicious fresh, reported to make excellent wine
Geneva Red (REJECTED, leaves too diseased so berries do not ripen)
Gertruda (red berries) – Rose’ wine, too early for evaluation
Jukka (ES 5-4-16, REJECTED, berries do not ripen on our site )
Landot Noir (REJECTED, very low vigor)
Laurot (REJECTED, diseased)
Leon Millot – beautiful grape bunches, delicious, productive
Lomanto - too soon for evaluation
Marechal Foch – delicious fresh, said to make good wine but fussy
Marquette (REJECTED, diseased)
Michurinets (REJECTED, diseased)
Mystic Eyes – very early, too soon for evaluation
Noiret – (REJECTED, doesn't ripen on our site)
Norton (Cynthiana) – (REJECTED, too late, half the berries rot)
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 soon for evaluation
Sabrevois – too soon for evaluation
Skandia – too soon for evaluation
St. Croix – too soon for evaluation
St. Paul – too soon for evaluation
St. Vincent – (REJECTED, doesn't ripen on our site, half the berries rot)
Verona – productive, tasty, healthy
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 soon for evaluation
Sheriden (REJECTED, diseased, does not ripen)
St. Anna (REJECTED, does not ripen on our site)
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 soon for evaluation
Aromella (REJECTED, diseased)
Brianna – (REJECTED, diseased)
Brilliant - too soon for evaluation (Rose' wine)
Cayuga White (REJECTED, diseased)
Delaware - tasty grapes
Clondike – very tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine
Dilemma – too soon for evaluation
ES 10-18-14/15 – delicious, too soon for evaluation
ES 10-18-30 – delicious, too soon for evaluation
Frontenac Blanc – too soon for evaluation
Frontenac Gris - (REJECTED, semi-healthy but not very tasty fresh nor is wine)
Geisenheim 318 (REJECTED, diseased)
Itasca – too soon for evaluation
Jubilee of Swenson – too soon for evaluation
Kay Gray (REJECTED, healthy but not very tasty)
L'Acadie Blanc – very tasty, healthy, productive
La Crescent (REJECTED, diseased)
Louise Swenson – beautiful grapes
Minnesota Emerald – very tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine, berries cracked after 2017 Fall rains
Monastery Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Mrs. Munson – Muscat-like, too soon for evaluation
New York Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Orion (REJECTED, diseased)
Osceola Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Petite Amie – very tasty, healthy, productive
Prairie Star (ES 3-24-7) – tasty grapes
Prestige – too soon for evaluation
Ravat 34 (REJECTED, diseased)
Reform (REJECTED, vendor error, grape not white)
Sandy Moon – too soon for evaluation
Solaris - too soon 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) - too soon for evaluation
Everest Seedless (NY98.0228.02) (blue seedless, very large berries)– too soon for evaluation
Goff (REJECTED, very low vigor, diseased)
Himrod (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Icydora (white) – too soon for evaluation
Interlaken (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
John Viola (REJECTED, too tart)
Jupiter (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Lakemont (white)(REJECTED, diseased)
Lorelei – one of the tastiest of the white grapes, said to produce ‘weird wine' - too soon for evaluation
Marquis (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Mars (blue seedless) (REJECTED, Diseased)
Montreal Blues (ES 6-4-47, blue seedless) – tasty, productive - too soon for evaluation
Moored (red) (REJECTED, diseased)
Neptune (white seedless) (REJECTED, many years before grapes, then all grapes rotted)
Ontario (white) (REJECTED, too tender, died)
Petite Jewel (Seedless) – healthy, beautiful, tasty grapes
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 – tasty, medium-sized berries
Suffolk Red (REJECTED, diseased)
Swenson Red (REJECTED, diseased)
Thomcord (REJECTED, diseased)
Trollhaugen – too soon for evaluation
Vanessa (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Venus (blue seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Wapanuka – (REJECTED, vendor error - not white)
Worden – fair fresh, great jam, productive, some disease
Yates (red) (REJECTED, difficult to root and transplant, several efforts unsuccessful)
Zilga – too soon for evaluation
Click link to download a PDF of the above cultivar list, Table of No-Spray Grape Trials
The Good grape varieties are those that produce better and tastier berries.
The Rejected grape varieties are those that are unhealthy, rot, do not ripen on our site, or have unsatisfactory taste under no-spray conditions.
Photos of the varieties are pictured with brief descriptions, brix values (% sugar), and observations, in these sections of this website:
Concord-Wine Grapes
Red-Wine Grapes
Table Grapes
White-Wine Grapes
Brix values vary from year to year on each variety. As an example, 20 brix means the grape juice contains 20% sugar. Brix values between 20 and 28 are ideal for wine though you can get by with as little as 15 brix. Under 15 brix the grapes are not ripe and the taste reflects that.
Brix values shown below each photo are the highest brix values obtained over the years. I use a brix refractometer to measure the brix values. To get a measurement, I crush and mix the juice of 30 to 60 grapes. Some vines may still have low production, so this quantity may not be available, and I use what I can even if it is only 1 or 2 grapes. The ideal is 30 to 60 grapes to obtain a good statistical measurement.
Another measure that is used is the acid level in grapes which goes down as the grape ripens and sweetens. Acidity is more time consuming to measure and I do not measure and record these, but rely on brix level and taste.
Evaluation is an ongoing process during the course of these trials. Categorization as Good should be considered preliminary until the completion of the study in 2023. When a vine is categorized as Rejected, it is pulled from the ground and no longer under consideration.
The success or failure of grape production depends heavily upon the selection of appropriate cultivars for your site. If you pick the wrong variety, your grapes will rot under no-spray conditions, as can be verified in this study.
Describing taste, admittedly, is personally subjective. Therefore, I have selected the following adjectives to best describe my personal opinion of the grapes I have harvested under less than ideal growing conditions: unsatisfactory, poor, fair, tasty, very tasty, delicious, best. These adjectives are used throughout this website. Grapes are rejected if they are determined to be unsatisfactory, poor, or fair.
In addition to their intended use, wine grapes can also be used for table/juice/jam/freezing.
Since disease and pest pressure vary from year to year, 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 this database, for cultivars in my study, but many are not included. It is an ambitious project to list all the cultivars world-wide and I praise their efforts to keep this as up to date as possible.
Additionally, the National Grape Registry can help you track down grape varieties grown in the USA.
So, with tens of thousands of cultivars, how did I decide which ones to select for this study?
First, only a thousand or so are utilized commercially around the world. To make my selection, I narrowed my search 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-hardy and disease resistant varieties. Many publications online were useful to this end, especially those provided by university extension services. Over several years, I narrowed down my study to 122 cultivars.
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, and 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 producing; the remainder were planted in Spring 2018. Most cultivars require 3 years before they begin producing grapes and 5 years for full production.
In addition to wine production, many wine grapes can also be used as table grapes.
Red wine grapes have high sugar content and their small berries yield a higher ratio of skin to flesh. Since the skin imparts color and flavors into red wines, more is better; therefore, the smaller berries better provide this proportional relationship.
White wine grapes are primarily selected for the taste of the wine they produce.
Some pink, red, white and blue grapes make unsatisfactory wine, so they are grown for eating fresh, 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 in hardiness.
Color Code:
Bold Blue – appears promising, tasty berries with less disease than others.
Light Blue – too soon 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 (REJECTED, grafted, died)
Baltica - too soon for evaluation
Cascade (Rosé) – productive, tasty
Castel 19-637 (REJECTED, diseased)
Corot Noir (REJECTED, diseased)
Crimson Pearl (REJECTED, diseased)
DeChaunac (REJECTED, diseased)
Delicatessen - too soon for evaluation
DM 8521-1 – too soon for evaluation
ES 10-18-20 - too soon for evaluation
Francis – too soon for evaluation
Frontenac – delicious fresh, reported to make excellent wine
Geneva Red (REJECTED, leaves too diseased so berries do not ripen)
Gertruda (red berries) – Rose’ wine, too early for evaluation
Jukka (ES 5-4-16, REJECTED, berries do not ripen on our site )
Landot Noir (REJECTED, very low vigor)
Laurot (REJECTED, diseased)
Leon Millot – beautiful grape bunches, delicious, productive
Lomanto - too soon for evaluation
Marechal Foch – delicious fresh, said to make good wine but fussy
Marquette (REJECTED, diseased)
Michurinets (REJECTED, diseased)
Mystic Eyes – very early, too soon for evaluation
Noiret – (REJECTED, doesn't ripen on our site)
Norton (Cynthiana) – (REJECTED, too late, half the berries rot)
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 soon for evaluation
Sabrevois – too soon for evaluation
Skandia – too soon for evaluation
St. Croix – too soon for evaluation
St. Paul – too soon for evaluation
St. Vincent – (REJECTED, doesn't ripen on our site, half the berries rot)
Verona – productive, tasty, healthy
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 soon for evaluation
Sheriden (REJECTED, diseased, does not ripen)
St. Anna (REJECTED, does not ripen on our site)
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 soon for evaluation
Aromella (REJECTED, diseased)
Brianna – (REJECTED, diseased)
Brilliant - too soon for evaluation (Rose' wine)
Cayuga White (REJECTED, diseased)
Delaware - tasty grapes
Clondike – very tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine
Dilemma – too soon for evaluation
ES 10-18-14/15 – delicious, too soon for evaluation
ES 10-18-30 – delicious, too soon for evaluation
Frontenac Blanc – too soon for evaluation
Frontenac Gris - (REJECTED, semi-healthy but not very tasty fresh nor is wine)
Geisenheim 318 (REJECTED, diseased)
Itasca – too soon for evaluation
Jubilee of Swenson – too soon for evaluation
Kay Gray (REJECTED, healthy but not very tasty)
L'Acadie Blanc – very tasty, healthy, productive
La Crescent (REJECTED, diseased)
Louise Swenson – beautiful grapes
Minnesota Emerald – very tasty, said to produce excellent Riesling type wine, berries cracked after 2017 Fall rains
Monastery Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Mrs. Munson – Muscat-like, too soon for evaluation
New York Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Orion (REJECTED, diseased)
Osceola Muscat (REJECTED, diseased)
Petite Amie – very tasty, healthy, productive
Prairie Star (ES 3-24-7) – tasty grapes
Prestige – too soon for evaluation
Ravat 34 (REJECTED, diseased)
Reform (REJECTED, vendor error, grape not white)
Sandy Moon – too soon for evaluation
Solaris - too soon 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) - too soon for evaluation
Everest Seedless (NY98.0228.02) (blue seedless, very large berries)– too soon for evaluation
Goff (REJECTED, very low vigor, diseased)
Himrod (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Icydora (white) – too soon for evaluation
Interlaken (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
John Viola (REJECTED, too tart)
Jupiter (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Lakemont (white)(REJECTED, diseased)
Lorelei – one of the tastiest of the white grapes, said to produce ‘weird wine' - too soon for evaluation
Marquis (white seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Mars (blue seedless) (REJECTED, Diseased)
Montreal Blues (ES 6-4-47, blue seedless) – tasty, productive - too soon for evaluation
Moored (red) (REJECTED, diseased)
Neptune (white seedless) (REJECTED, many years before grapes, then all grapes rotted)
Ontario (white) (REJECTED, too tender, died)
Petite Jewel (Seedless) – healthy, beautiful, tasty grapes
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 – tasty, medium-sized berries
Suffolk Red (REJECTED, diseased)
Swenson Red (REJECTED, diseased)
Thomcord (REJECTED, diseased)
Trollhaugen – too soon for evaluation
Vanessa (red seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Venus (blue seedless) (REJECTED, diseased)
Wapanuka – (REJECTED, vendor error - not white)
Worden – fair fresh, great jam, productive, some disease
Yates (red) (REJECTED, difficult to root and transplant, several efforts unsuccessful)
Zilga – too soon for evaluation
Click link to download a PDF of the above cultivar list, Table of No-Spray Grape Trials