St. Pepin (grape)

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 (−32 °C). As such, it best suited to growing in more northern climates.[1]

St. Pepin was bred by Elmer Swenson c. 1970 and released in 1986.[2] It is a hybrid of the male Seyval blanc crossed to a seedling of Minnesota 78 by Seibel 1000 (a.k.a. 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.[3]

  1. ^ Lisa Ann Smiley, Paul Domoto, and Gail Nonnecke, "Cold Climate Cultivars", Iowa State University Dept. of Agriculture, http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/cultivars/cultivars.html Archived 2012-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ National Grape Registry, http://ngr.ucdavis.edu/
  3. ^ Rombough, Lon. The Grape Grower: a Guide to Organic Viticulture. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002. p. 218. ISBN 1890132829