🍇 Geneva

Geneva is a white grape variety bred in New York State from a cross of Vitis labrusca with Vitis vinifera. The International Variety Catalogue VIVC (Julius Kühn-Institut) lists it as an interspecific crossing with white (blanc) berry skin, bred by Jacob Moore in the United States, with 1874 as the year of crossing. VIVC gives the pedigree as (Labrusca × Muscat of Alexandria) × Iona, confirmed by markers, and lists no synonyms.

Ulysses P. Hedrick, in The Grapes of New York (New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1908), calls Geneva a secondary hybrid between Labrusca and Vinifera in which the Labrusca blood predominates. According to Hedrick, Jacob Moore of Brighton, Monroe County, raised it from seed planted in 1874 of a hybrid vine fertilised by Iona; the maternal vine came from seed of a wild Labrusca fertilised with Muscat Alexandria. The R. G. Chase Company of Geneva introduced the variety.

Hedrick describes the vine as moderately vigorous to vigorous, not very hardy and healthy, with smaller crops than Concord. The berries are medium to large, slightly oval, dull green changing to a faint yellow tinge, with a thin gray bloom. The fruit ripens soon after Niagara, ships well and keeps into winter. He rates the quality as fair to good, pure in flavour but somewhat insipid, and writes that the variety never became popular. He adds that it succeeded somewhat better south of New York.