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Royalty
Grape (Vitis)
Color of berry skinNoir
SpeciesAmerican Vitis hybrid
Also calledRoyalty 1390, California S 26, Kek Royalti and Royalti
OriginUnited States 1938
Original pedigreeTrousseau gris × Alicante Ganzin
Pedigree parent 1Trousseau gris
Pedigree parent 2Alicante Ganzin
Notable regionsCalifornia wine

Royalty (also known as Royalty 1390) is a rouge Californian wine grape variety that was developed in 1938 by Dr. Harold P. Olmo of the University of California, Davis.[1] The grape is a red fleshed teinturier which, unlike most red wine grapes, will produce red-tinged colored wine even without maceration time on the skins. The grape is a hybrid produced from the Vitis vinifera Trousseau gris variety from the Jura wine region of France[2] and the teinturier grape Alicante Ganzin that is itself a hybrid of a Vitis rupestris variety and the Vitis vinifera grape Aramon.[3]

History

Royalty was first cultivated by Dr. Olmo in 1938 at the California Agricultural Experiment Station of UC-Davis but wasn't released for commercial use until 1958. It was released at the same time as Rubired, another Olmo teinturier with Alicante Ganzin parentage. Like Rubired, Royalty was mostly grown in the Central Valley of California where it was used a blending grape to improve the color of red wines. However, Royalty showed itself to be more difficult to cultivate than Rubired and fell out of favor among many growers. While by the end of the 20th century there was still more than 6,000 acres (2,500 hectares) of Rubired in production in California there were only around 800 acres (320 ha) of Royalty in use.[2]

Synonyms

Among the synonyms that Royalty has been known as include California S 26, Kek Royalti and Royalti.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) Royalty Archived 2016-04-17 at the Wayback Machine Accessed: August 17th, 2012
  2. ^ a b J. Robinson Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes pg 161 Oxford University Press 1996 ISBN 0198600984
  3. ^ J. Robinson Vines Grapes & Wines pg 226 Mitchell Beazley 1986 ISBN 1-85732-999-6