🍇 Aurelia

Aurelia is a white table grape, an interspecific hybrid from the United States. According to its VIVC passport, it was bred by the private breeder Robert T. Dunstan and selected in 1950. The breeder names the Turkish table grape Çavuş and the hybrid Villard Blanc (Seyve-Villard 12-375) as its parents; this pedigree has not yet been confirmed by DNA markers. During trials the variety carried the number D 56, which is why catalogues also list it as Dunstan 56.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture genebank (GRIN), citing the 1972 register of new varieties by Brooks and Olmo, adds that the variety originated in Greensboro, North Carolina, and was introduced in 1963 by a nursery in Raleigh. The clusters are long, tapered and shouldered, with a very long stem; the berries are large and oval, with a greenish-golden skin and firm, sweet flesh. The vine is extremely vigorous: unless it is pruned or cluster-thinned, it overcrops. It appears to resist mildew and phylloxera but is somewhat susceptible to black rot, and it grows well from North Carolina to Oklahoma.

Why it matters to you. In 1967 the breeder Herbert Barrett called Aurelia “the Golden One” and wrote that its crisp, meaty berry resembles Çavuş but, as grown at Urbana, Illinois, tastes better. It shows how the flavour of European table grapes was carried into American hybrids. At the same time, the U.S. genebank now lists Aurelia only as a historic record: no living plants remain there.