🍇 Red Globe

Red Globe is a red table grape variety from the United States, belonging to the European species Vitis vinifera. It was created by Harold Olmo and Albert Koyama at the California Agricultural Experiment Station (University of California): according to VIVC, the cross was made in 1957 and the selection in 1958.

The parents are the breeding lines Olmo L 12-80 and Olmo S 45-48; Foundation Plant Services at the University of California, Davis (FPS) gives the pedigree through the grandparents: (Hunisa × Emperor) × (Hunisa × Emperor × Nocera). The variety was released in 1980, and in 1981 it received US plant patent No. 4787, valid until 2000. The variety's history at FPS shows how healthy planting stock is maintained. Red Globe came there from Olmo in the late 1960s, underwent 100 days of heat treatment and in 1974 entered the foundation vineyard as Redglobe 01. Later virus problems were found, so the line was cleaned up by shoot-tip tissue culture and released in 2001 as Redglobe 02; in 2013 it passed testing for the new Russell Ranch foundation vineyard. The berries have seeds. Catalogues also list it as Globo rojo, Redglobe, Rosito and Olmo 10-23 D. The seedless varieties Sheegene 18 and Sheegene 20 by breeder Timothy Sheehan descend from Red Globe (both Red Globe × Princess).

Why it matters to you. If you buy seeded red grapes sold as Red Globe or Globo rojo, this is the Californian variety of Olmo and Koyama. The story of its virus clean-up explains why nurseries value certified lines such as Redglobe 02. And the Sheegene offspring show how breeders have already used Red Globe to create seedless varieties.