BLACK GRAPE VARIETIES, GENERALLY RECOMMENDED.

Boskoops Glory Dessert grape. A  disease resistant hybrid, a reliable cropper. Tasty, good size grape, early mid-season. Recommended .Award of Merit, RHS.

Brant Dessert/Wine grape. Easy to grow, late disease free hybrid. Reasonable crops, pleasant grapes, fine autumn colour, a good all purpose vine.

Gagarin Blue Dessert/Wine grape. An outdoor dessert grape of fine quality. Early mid-season, big crops of big bunches of big loose berries. A Russian hybrid. Recommended for amateur use. Decent wine. It is a purple/ black, well-flavoured dessert grape from Russia, named after the astronaut and reputedly smuggled here during the Cold War via an embassy in exchange for a box of Biros. Also good indoors.

Glenora Seedless. Disease resistant dessert. Still on trial, but outstanding results for quality and crop so far under cover.  Succeeds outside in sheltered locations. Small-medium black grapes in good bunches, top quality. Fine autumn colour.

Kempsey Black Dessert/Wine grape. Mid-late, vigorous disease free hybrid. Large bunches of large grapes of excellent quality. No hybrid flavour. A new introduction, well recommended.

Regent. Wine grape, Disease resistant hybrid of good quality, ripening and cropping well. Some very good wine. Acceptable eating too, but grapes are not large.      

Rembrant. Dessert/wine .Mid-late ,very vigorous disease free labrusca hybrid. Excellent cover vine, good crops of delicious strawberry flavoured grapes.

Rondo. A vitis amurensis hybrid. Strong rather floppy growth, good crops with decent sugars. Some excellent wine of good colour. Acceptable eating. Needs spray protection – ignore other writers claims of disease resistance.

Schuyler. American Dessert hybrid. Vigorous, disease resistant, good crops and quality. Late, but ripens well. Recommended.

Seibel 13053 Wine grape. Mid-season. Ultra reliable disease resistant hybrid giving big crops of strongly flavoured small grapes. It makes a reasonable red, quite good rose or excellent port style wine. Strongly recommended for the amateur. Small commercial plantings for rose would make economic sense. Very attractive vine, red shoots and bronze young foliage.

Triomphe d'Alsace Wine grape. Mid-early, very vigorous, disease free hybrid. Good crops when the set is good, can make excellent fruity wine. THE prize winning variety in the west, increasingly popular. High sugars, good colour, needs no faking to make good wines. It can be grown organically, and for an amateur, makes a good cover vine. Highly recommended

Vitis Purpurea (Spetchley Park) Wine/Dessert. Vigorous disease free, superb autumn colour. Small black ripe tasty grapes, though primarily an ornamental. Much better than the usual vitis purpurea, being mildew resistant. I am sure this is a hybrid.. Strongly recommended.

Additional Red Grape varieties.

These are mostly suitable for specific sites and purposes, and are generally propagated in small numbers. They include trial and experimental varieties.

Aboureau Wine grape. Late, but ripens. Good crops, colour, fair sugars, promising wine. Superb autumn colour. May be an early clone of Pinot Noir. Disease resistance above average. Worth a trial.

Acolon.Wine/dessert. Good crops and promising flavour.                                                   

Aladin. New French  dessert variety. Disease resistant pink Hybrid, which will ripen outside on a good site.

Alden Dessert grape. American disease resistant hybrid, high vigour, late ripening Large slightly spicy ,high quality grapes. Attractive Autumn colour. Recommended indoors, or on any good site.

Baco 1 Wine grape. Rampant late-ripening disease free hybrid, makes a good cover vine. High sugars, good colour, makes interesting port style wine .Leaves are good in cooking.

Black Alicante. High quality indoor dessert grape . Hangs well.

Black Frontignan Dessert grape. Greenhouse only. Top size and quality but needs heat for best results.

Black Hamburgh Dessert/Wine grape. Ancient greenhouse grape, many clones. This one is local, and earlier than most. Good wall grape. Good reliable easy dessert grape, pleasant wine, moderate colour.

Black Prince Dessert/Wine grape. Earlier than Black Hamburgh, which it otherwise resembles. Ripens well outdoors, good crops and excellent eating. Makes good wine though acidities may be low.

Black Strawberry Dessert grape. Disease free mid-season hybrid, vigorous and easy. Attractive strawberry like flavour.

Blue Portuguese Wine/Dessert grape. Late, with rather low sugars and variable crops. Ripens well in good seasons.

Buffalo. Hybrid dessert. American. Fruity labrusca - light strawberry flavour .Ripens well, disease free, attractive.

Cabernet Sauvignon Wine grape. The classic wine grape. Too late outdoors, does well in polytunnels or greenhouses.

Cardinal. Very large early red dessert. a big bunch ,but needs shelter and warmth. Rather tender. Well worth trying on good sites.

Carla. New dessert sort ,big grape of excellent quality. Worth a trial.                                

Castel 19637 Wine grape. French, disease resistant hybrid, ripens late with good crops and excellent sugars. Promising.

Chambourcin Wine grape. Just too late outside, a heavy cropping, disease free hybrid. Reputedly good wine, possible wall or greenhouse.

Cheddar Pinot. Found growing wild in a Mendip Hedge. A tough Pinot Meunier type. Ripens outside. Wine grape. Typical attractive foliage.

De Chaunac (S9549) Wine grape. Late, spreading, disease free, heavy cropping hybrid. Intense colour. Promising, but needs a top site. Fine greenhouse or tunnel vine. Excellent wine in the U.S.A.

Dolcetto. Early Italian wine grape. would seem to ripen here.

Dornfelder Wine/dessert grape. Mid-late, a big bunch and berry good crop ,moderate sugars. Mildew prone. Fine wine in Germany.

Dunkelfelder Wine grape. Early, intense colour ,rather mildew prone. Moderate crops, wine is intensely coloured, but neutral. Superb autumn colour and a good colouriser grape for other wines.

Dutch Black. From a Dutch amateur. True name unknown. Big disease resistant grape, good flavour. Possible for wine. Recommended.

Earlired Dessert/Wine grape. Very early dessert grape, good crops, but sugars not really high enough.

Foch Wine grape. Disease free hybrid, similar to Triomphe  d'Alsace. Worth a trial

Fragola Strawberry grape. Many varieties, can be any colour.

Fruhburgunder. Ancient, Pinot Noir mutation ,ripens earlier than the type. German experience is that crops are less, and quality less certain. Widely used in Britain as 'Pinot Noir, early clone'. Probably better in this country than the type.

Gamay Hatif des Vosges Dessert/Wine grape. despite the name, probably not a Gamay. Mid-early, nice dessert, irregular cropper.

Gamay Noir Wine grape. Late, but ripens, just. I find it to have high acids and to be an unreliable cropper, needing the best sites only.

Gamay Tienturer Wine grape. Ripens well though late. High acids but fair crops and excellent colour, worth a trial.

Helfensteiner Wine grape. New German wine grape, ripens well. Shows promise in the U.K.

Kuibishevsky Dessert/Wine grape. Very early, another Russian  amurensis hybrid. Large loose purple bunches. Rather mildew prone, but good flavour.

Leon Millot Wine grape. Very similar Triomphe d'Alsace, qv. A little later, some think the wine is better.

Lival. .New French  dessert grape. Large, good quality, ripens outdoors. Promising.

Madresfield Court. Early greenhouse Muscat dessert. Very fine .but a difficult grape, prone to splitting.                                                                                                           

Marshall Joffre Wine/Dessert grape. A very early dual purpose hybrid, vigorous disease resistant. Moderate crops, good quality, high sugars and colour, but very attractive to birds. Must be netted, but recommended, especially where earliness is vital.

Merlot Wine grape. A classic wine grape, needs protection to ripen in the U.K.

Munson. R.W.. Hybrid dessert. Interesting and unusual. ‘ Post Oak’ flavour .Complete disease resistance.                                                                                                       

Muscat Bleu. Dual purpose hybrid from Hungary. Ripens well and of fine flavour. Big loose bunches. Moderate crops so far. Promising, worth a trial.

Muscat De Lierval. Early French dessert, small bunch and berry but good flavour.

Muscat Hamburgh. Fine quality indoor dessert. Not easy to grow well.

New York Muscat. Hybrid dessert. Disease resistant, fine flavour, will ripen outside or in. Recommended .May have wine possibilities .Award of merit ,RHS.

Noir Hatif De Marseilles Dessert grape. Ancient dessert vine. Early, ripens well, fine flavour, but only modest crops.

Pinot Noir Wine grape. Late, modest crops, high acid and general poor colour. A classic variety, but I think just too late to be reliable. See Fruhburgunder as an alternative.

Pinot Meunier Wine grape ( see Wrotham Pinot )

Pinot St. Laurent Wine grape. Ancient quality variety, may be an early clone of Pinot Noir. Ripens well, worth a trial.

Pirovano 14 Dessert/Wine grape. Early mid-season, mainly dessert, high quality, but an irregular cropper. A big, light red grape, may need shelter. First class for the right site.

Prima. New large French dessert grape.  Ripens well outside. Enormous sweet grapes in huge bunches.  Highly recommended.

Queen of Esther. Hybrid Hungarian dessert grape of good quality .Ripens well outside. Promising. Possibilities for wine.                                                                                                                                  

Rotberger Wine/Dessert grape. Big bunch and berry, perhaps a little late               

Seibel 5455 Wine grape. Ripens,  just. Enormous cropper, disease free hybrid. Best sites, or provide shelter.

Seibel 7053 Late, best sites only, but big crops, well coloured grapes on disease free vines.

Seibel 18315 Big loose bunches, big cropper, moderate growth. Ripens, just, but needs a first class site.

Shiraz. Wine grape, synonym Petite Syrah .Classic wine grape ,indoors only.         

Tereshkova Dessert grape. Russian red dessert grape, mid season, good quality.

Wrotham Pinot Wine grape. Late, but ripens, moderate crops with good sugars in good years, rather high acids. A quality variety, making excellent white or sparkling wine, red in hot years. Ancient, tough variety, with ornamental whitish leaves. Not a hybrid, but seems disease resistant . An early clone of Pinot Meunier.

Vitis Purpurea Wine grape. Generally grown only as an ornamental, but will ripen on a warm wall, with intensely coloured grapes and beautiful red foliage. May need spraying against mildew.

Zweigeltrebe Wine grape. Late heavy cropping Austrian variety. Good sugars when ripe, and makes a good rose.

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