🍇 Buffalo

Buffalo is an American table grape with dark berries, bred at the New York State experiment station in Geneva (now part of Cornell University). According to VIVC, it is a cross of Herbert × Watkins made in 1921, with the seedling selected in 1928; the Cornell list dates the release of the variety to 1938.

VIVC names Richard Wellington as the breeder. The working number of the variety is New York 10830, and the 5 synonyms in the catalogue include Early Steuben, Fiorito and Buffalo Muskat. Its parent Herbert is a hybrid by E. S. Rogers from the middle of the XIX century, while Watkins is a variety from the same station, which the USDA GRIN genebank gives as Mills × Ontario.

Buffalo became a notable ancestor in breeding. From a cross of Buffalo with Baco noir, Cornell released the red wine grape Geneva Red in 2003; Cornell describes it as productive, very winter-hardy and virus-resistant, for dark red wines. Through the breeding line New York 46000 (Buffalo × New York 34006), Buffalo is also part of the pedigree of the seedless Venus, crossed by James Moore in Arkansas in 1964.

VIVC classes Buffalo as a table grape. According to the catalogue's table of area, in 1991 there were 1.4 ha of it in Canada. Samples of the variety are kept in 15 collections.

Why it matters to you. Buffalo shows how a table grape becomes a donor for new varieties: its genes are in the winter-hardy wine grape Geneva Red and in the seedless Venus from Arkansas. If a description mentions Early Steuben or New York 10830, it is the same grape.