🍇 Saphira

Saphira is a white wine grape variety (Vitis vinifera subsp. sativa) bred in Germany. According to the international grape catalogue VIVC, it is a cross of Arnsburger and Seyve Villard 1-72 made in 1978 by Helmut Becker at the Institute of Grapevine Breeding of Hochschule Geisenheim University. VIVC gives 1999 as the year of protection and lists the synonyms Geisenheim 7815-1 and GM 7815-1.

The German Federal Plant Variety Office (Bundessortenamt) includes Saphira in its Descriptive Variety List for Grapevines 2024 among the white yield varieties (identification number RBE 121). It is approved since 2004 and has been protected in Germany since 1999; the breeder and maintainer is Hochschule Geisenheim, Institut für Rebenzüchtung.

VIVC records the resistance loci Ren3, Ren9 and Rpv3.3, complete seed formation and hermaphrodite flowers, and states that Saphira is registered in the European Catalogue. It is held in the collections DEU454, DEU455 and ITA362. VIVC area statistics show 3 ha in Germany in 2001 to 2004 and 11 ha in 2016 to 2018 and in 2020 (10 ha in 2015 and 2019).

If a grape is named on the label of an EU wine, it makes up at least 85% of that wine.