🍇 Perle Noire

Perle Noire is a dark-berried table grape variety, an interspecific hybrid from France. It was bred by the private breeder Bertille Seyve-Villard; its breeding number is Seyve-Villard 20-347 (SV 20-347). According to the breeder, the parents are Panse de Provence and Seyve-Villard 12-358, but the DNA marker analysis cited in VIVC showed that the first parent is Muscat Hamburg.

So, like Muscat de Saint Vallier Blanc by the same breeder, Perle Noire counts this well-known table Muscat among its ancestors. The US genebank (GRIN) keeps Perle Noire in its collection in Geneva, New York; the accession received its PI number in 1947, and Cornell University donated the cuttings in 1985. There the variety is described as follows: berries red-blue, medium and round; clusters large and loose; the vine is small, ripens unevenly and is somewhat tender in winter. According to VIVC, the berries have seeds. The Swiss variety Muscat Bleu descends from Perle Noire: Charles Garnier bred it by crossing Garnier 15-6 with Seyve-Villard 20-347.

Why it matters to you. Perle Noire is held by 10 collections in France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and the United States, two of them in Ukraine, so the variety is available for study and breeding. It also shows well how DNA analysis corrects old breeders' records: the declared Panse de Provence gave way to Muscat Hamburg. If a catalogue lists SV 20-347, it means Perle Noire.