Alexander (grape)

Alexander
Grape (Vitis)
Color of berry skinNoir
SpeciesVitis labrusca × ?
Also calledSee list of synonyms
OriginUnited States

Alexander (also known as Tasker's Grape[1]) is a spontaneous cross of vines from which the first commercial wines in America were made. It was discovered in 1740 in the neighborhood of Springgettsbury, Philadelphia, in a vineyard where James Alexander (d. 1778), Thomas Penn's gardener, had originally planted cuttings of Vitis vinifera in 1683. It was popularized by the Bartram family at Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia, and widely distributed after the American Revolution by William Bartram.[2]

The Alexander grape is a hybrid grape of Vitis labrusca and another species, which may probably be Vitis vinifera.[2]

  1. ^ William Bartram, Account of the Species, Hybrids, and Other Varieties of the Vine of North-America, Medical Repository, (1804), vol. 7 [second series, vol. 1], p. 19-24.
  2. ^ a b Pinney, Thomas (2007). A History of Wine in America, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to Prohibition, University of California Press, 2nd ed. p. 85. ISBN 0-520-25429-5