🍇 Moyer

Moyer is a red table grape variety, an interspecific hybrid from Canada. According to its VIVC passport, it was bred by the private breeder William Read, with the cross dated to 1880. Ulysses Hedrick, in The Grapes of New York (1908), adds that Read raised the original vine at Port Dalhousie, Ontario, from seed of Delaware pollinated by Miller's Burgundy, which VIVC equates with Pinot Meunier.

The variety was named after Allan Moyer of St. Catharines, who introduced it in 1888. This parentage has not yet been checked with DNA markers. According to Hedrick, Moyer is almost a copy of Delaware: the berries are small to medium, dark red and sweet, with no foxy taste. It ripens one to two weeks earlier than its parent and stands cold better; in Canada it proved reliable wherever Concord grows. On the other hand, the vine is weaker and less productive, the flowers are self-sterile, and the clusters often set unevenly. The fruit keeps well, travels well and does not crack. Headlight descends from Moyer: Thomas Munson raised it from Moyer seed pollinated by Brilliant, sown in 1895; the variety was released in 1901.

Why it matters to you. Moyer shows how North American breeders looked for an early, cold-hardy substitute for Delaware in cold regions. If you meet the names Jordan or Moyer's Early Red in old catalogues, they refer to this same table grape. At the same time, VIVC lists no collection that holds it, so today it is more a page of history than a variety you can buy as a vine.