Delaware Grape
DELAWARE

One of the antebellum hybrid grapes that came into general cultivation in the 1850s, the Delaware was a complex cross of a Vitis borquiniana, with Vitis labrusca x Vitis vinefera vine.  With modest sized reddish berries, with pulpy firm flesh, this aromatic grape won a substantial following in the 19th century for making sparkling champagne style white wines.  Its juice, also, enjoyed favor among those who drank fruit juices.  Delaware wines tended to be greenish yellow and to possess the kind of sprightliness and refreshment now associated with Portuguese vino verde. 

Paul Provost of Frenchtown, N. J., a Native grape collector and hybridizer, gave the variety to Ohioans S. Heath and P. Warford who planted it in the late 1830s on the banks of Sciotto River in Delaware County, Ohio.  There it eventually came to the notice of the editor of the Delaware Gazette, Abram Thomson, an amatuer horticulturist, who sent samples to the editor of America's chief pomological magaine of the 1850s, The Horticulturist.  That magazine's editor, Maj. P. Barry, immediately recognized the merits of the grape and trumpeted them in his journal.  Cultivators immediately reckoned the Delaware as the next Catawba, the next 'million dollar' Native wine grape. A speculative grape boom developed in the mid-1850s around the strain, with cuttings commanding inflated prices.  Vineyards of Delaware spread across the American interior and Delaware Wine became ubiquitous.  [William H. Baskin, History of Delaware County and Ohio (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1880), 269.]

The Delaware's long history as a major vineyard grape in America occurred despite certain vulnerabilities that the fruit and vine possessed. It was highly susceptible to mildew, moderately susceptible to black rot, and somewhat susceptible to anthracnose. Early cultivators sought to fight the problem with powdery mildew by arranging trelisses to maximize air circulation around the clusters.  Nothing could counteract the fruits tendency to split when rain occurred during harvest.

"Berries small, round; skin thin, of a beautiful amber color; flesh juicy, with very little pulp; flavor sweet; sprightly and delicious; bunches medium sized, very compact and somewhat shouldered; a good free grower, and one of the hardiest vines known" Genessee Farmer 2nd Series, 23, 4 (April 1862), 120.  Only the final characterization in this description can be termed 'hopeful."  The vines tended to be procumbant and were only moderately vigorous.  But the editors of the Genessee Farmer in the 1860s were so smitten with the Delaware that they offered the vines a premiums for subscribers who secured other subscriptions to the magazine among acquaintances.  What went unmentioned were the lovely aromatics of the grape which have kept it in cultivation into the 21st century. 

From the 1870s onward nearly any nursery that offered grape varieties in the United States supplied cuttings of the Delaware.  

Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Royal Steadman, no date.

David S. Shields