St. Pepin (grape)

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St. Pepin is a modern hybrid variety of wine grape, mostly grown in North America. It produces grapes suitable for making fruity white wines similar to Riesling or as a base for blended wines. The grapes also make a good seeded table grape for eating. It has the benefits of early ripening and when hardened properly in the fall it is winter hardy to at least -25 F. As such it best suited to growing in more northern climates.

St. Pepin was produced and patented by Elmer Swenson circa 1970. It is a hybrid of the male Seyval blanc crossed to a seedling of Minnesota 78 by Seibel 1000 (aka Rosette). Unlike most modern grapes it is a pistillate female and so needs to be planted next to male vines from a close sibling variety to achieve pollination.

[edit] Parentage

To clarify the parentage of St. Pepin;

• Minnesota 78 is recorded as a cross of Beta by Witt, but many have doubted this pedigree, and Elmer Swenson suggested that the male parent may be Jessica, a cross of Vitis labrusca by a variety of Vitis aestivalis
• Beta is a cross of a variety of Vitis riparia by Concord
• Seyval is a cross of Seibel 5656 and Seibel 4986 Both these hybrids are a complex set of crosses of other Seibel hybrids.

[edit] See also

• List of grape varieties