Edelweiss (grape variety)
Edelweiss is an early ripening white wine variety and was bred by Elmer Swenson in 1968 - the same year as Swenson Red . It is considered to be particularly disease-resistant and frost-hardy and can therefore also be cultivated in the Midwest and Canada . It is used as a wine press and table grape.
For about ten years Swenson had been employed as a gardener in the experimental facilities of the University of Minnesota , where he developed a particular passion for experiments with grapes, which was neither given particular attention nor financially supported, but which was not prevented as part of his work. It is noteworthy that Swenson never made and seldom drank wine in his life; his focus was actually on the table grapes .
In particular, with the Minnesota 78 grape variety , he carried out several experiments, which he then continued on his own farm. The crossing partner for Edelweiss was Ontario . The result was a fruity Riesling -like wine of medium shelf life and extreme frost protection down to minus 35 ° C . The breeder Pat Pierquet said of this variety that one day it will keep Swenson's memory alive and ensure that the wine industry will have prosperous harvest results. At an international wine tasting, a winery from Nebraska won a gold medal for a noble sweet wine , which shows the diversity this grape variety offers in winemaking.
Edelweiss is the ancestor of the new Sogn Blanc variety .
literature
- Yearbook, Minnesota Grape Growers Association; The Association 1977, Cornell University, OCLC 4510238
Web links
- Edelweiss in the database Vitis International Variety Catalog of the Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof (English)