Grapevine named ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’

Abstract

A new and distinct variety of grapevine named ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, primarily adapted to the growing conditions of the temperate regions, and characterized by its strong vigor; erect growth habit; wedge-shaped leaves with medium texture; medium weight and conical shaped berry clusters; early maturing, firm berry flesh with no coloration and neutral taste primarily for winemaking; early harvesting time; and resistance to winter temperatures (to −22° C.), resistance to downy mildew and tolerance to powdery mildew.

Description

Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: Vitis×vinifera (hybrid).

Variety name: ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct summer/fall bearing grapevine variety, botanically known as Vitis vinifera, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’.

The new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ is a product of a controlled breeding program conducted by the inventors in Udine, Italy. The objective of the breeding program was to develop a new grapevine variety particularly characterized by resistance to cold (<−20° C.), resistance to downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola), and tolerance to powdery mildew (Uncinula necator).

The new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ originated from a cross made by the inventors in 2002 in Udine, Italy. The female or seed parent is the grapevine variety Vitis vinifera ‘Sauvignon’ (unpatented), and the male or pollen parent is the grapevine variety Vitis ‘20/3’ (Bianca×SK77-4/5) (unpatented).

The new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ was discovered and selected by the inventors as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in 2002 in Udine, Italy. Asexual reproduction of the new grapevine variety by grafting was first performed in February 2004 in Rauscedo, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Italy, and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new cultivar reproduces true to type.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ is primarily adapted to the climate and growing conditions of the temperate regions with average yearly temperature about 13° C., minimum winter temperature about −20° C., annual rainfall around 700-1500 mm of rain (e.g. North-Eastern Italy, Friuli). This region provides the necessary year-round temperatures required for it to produce and maintain a strong vigorous plant with consistent fruit production from April through November on primocanes and in the ensuing year from April through November on the floricanes.

The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be unique characteristics of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, which in combination distinguish this grapevine plant as a new and distinct variety.

• • 1. Strong vigor;
  • 2. Erect growth habit;
  • 3. Wedge-shaped leaves with a medium green upper surface and light green lower surface and a medium texture;
  • 4. Fruit clusters with medium weight, conical shape, firm berry flesh with neutral taste, and no flesh coloration, early maturity (end of August in Middle Friuli, North-Eastern Italy); and primarily used for wine.
  • 5. Primocanes and floricanes with an elliptic cross section, brownish color, no lenticels, and small internodes of 8 mm diameter;
  • 6. Early harvesting time, at end of August in Middle Friuli, North-Eastern Italy; and
  • 7. Resistance to winter temperature (−22° C.), resistance to downy mildew, and tolerant to powdery mildew, if overripening is allowed it is susceptible to cluster rots.

Plants of the new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ differ from plants of the parents, Vitis vinifera ‘Sauvignon’ (unpatented) and Vitis ‘20/3’ (unpatented), in the following characteristics described in Table 1.

TABLE 1
Comparison with Parent Varieties
	New Cultivar	Female Parent	Male Parent
Character-	‘SAUVIGNON	‘Sauvignon’	‘20/3’
istic	KRETOS’	( unpatented)	( unpatented)
vigor	strong	medium	medium
growth	erect	semi-erect	semi-erect
habit
leaf	medium, medium	medium, medium	Medium size,
	green color (upper	green color (upper	light green color
	surface), light green	surface), pale green	(upper surface),
	color (lower surface),	color (lower sur-	green color (lower
	no hairs in both	face), prostrate	surface), no hairs
	surfaces, wedge-	hairs on upper sur-	in both surfaces,
	shaped, medium	face: present, high	wedge-shaped -
	texture,	density of prostrate	kidney-shaped,
		hairs on lower	medium texture
		surface, circular
		shape, medium
		texture
cluster	medium weight,	very low weight,	low weight, coni-
	conical with two	cylindrical-conical,	cal, with 1-2
	wings, medium	with 1-2 wings,	wings, medium
	dense, berry	dense, berry skin	dense, berry skin
	skin with green	with green-yellow	with green-yellow
	color, firm flesh,	color, slightly firm	color, slightly
	neutral taste, no	flesh, aromatic	firm flesh,
	flesh coloration	taste, no flesh	neutral taste, no
		coloration	flesh coloration
primocane	elliptic cross section,	circular cross	oblate cross
and	brownish color,	section, brownish	section, brownish
floricane	lenticels: absent,	color, lenticels:	color, lenticels:
	short-medium	absent, short-	absent, medium
	internodes, diameter:	medium inter-	internodes,
	small (about 8 mm)	nodes, diameter	diameter small
		small (about 8 mm)	(about 8 mm)
harvesting	early (late August	medium (early	Early (late August,
time	in Middle Friuli,	September in	Middle Friuli,
	North-Eastern	Middle Friuli,	North-Eastern
	Italy),	North-Eastern	Italy)
		Italy)
resist-	resistant to winter	Average resist	resistant to winter
ances	temperature (−22°	ance to winter	temperature not
	C.), resistant to	temperature	known, resistant to
	downy mildew, tol-	(−15° C.),	downy mildew,
	erant to powdery	susceptible to	resistant to
	mildew, when over-	downy mildew,	powdery mildew
	ripe susceptible to	susceptible to
	cluster rots.	powdery mildew

Of the many commercial cultivars known to the present inventor, the most similar to the new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ is the female parent ‘Sauvignon’, to which a comparison has been provided above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The accompanying photographs illustrate the overall appearance of the new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ showing the colors as true as is reasonably possible with colored reproductions of this type. Colors in the photographs may differ slightly from the color values cited in the detailed botanical description, which accurately describe the color of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’.

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show typical fruit clusters of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, taken on Aug. 30, 2012 in Udine, Italy.

FIG. 2 shows a typical mature leaf (upper surface, left and lower surface, right) of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, taken on Jun. 1, 2012 in Udine, Italy.

FIG. 3 shows a typical mature vine of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, taken on Aug. 3, 2012.

FIG. 4 shows a close-up view of typical mature fruit of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, taken on Aug. 30, 2012 in Udine, Italy

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

The following description of ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ unless otherwise noted, is based on observations taken during the 2011, 2012, and 2013 growing seasons in Udine, Italy and Fossalon di Grado (GO), Italy, from plants dug from a nursery located in Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo, Rauscedo (PN), Italy during the beginning of December 2007 and planted approximately 16 to 20 weeks later in Udine, Italy and Fossalon di Grado (GO), Italy. The phenotypical descriptions and color designations stated for the new variety may vary, depending upon variations in environmental factors, including weather (temperature, humidity and light intensity), day length, soil type, location and cultural conditions. ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions.

Color references are made to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart (R.H.S.), (Edition V, 2007), except where general colors of ordinary significance are used.

TABLE 3
Detailed Botanical Description
	‘SAUVIGNON	Sauvignon
Characteristic	KRETOS’	(unpatented)
GENERAL
Resistance to	Resistant to downy	Susceptible to downy
pest/disease	mildew, tolerant to	mildew and to powdery
	powdery mildew	mildew
Resistance to	Resistant to winter cold	Resistant to winter cold
natural elements	down to −22° C.	down to −15° C.
VINE
vigor	strong	medium
Trunk diameter	6.5	6.5
Bark
color	RHS 177B	Dark brown
underbark color	RHS 179B	Light brown
texture	n.a.	n.a.
Canes
length	Internode length	Internode length
	cm 9	about cm 11
Width (diameter)	8 mm	8 mm
Shoots
shape	Erected, cross	Semi-erected, cross
	section: oblate,	section: circular,
	surface: with stripes,	surface: smooth,
	nodes and inter-	nodes and inter-
	nodes without hairs	nodes without hairs
color	internodes with red	Internodes with
	(RHS 185B) and	green color
	green (RHS 144B)	on ventral and
	pigmentation on both	dorsal side,
	sides, nodes with red	nodes with green
	(RHS green (RHS	ventral and dorsal
	185B) and 144B)	side (RHS 144B)
	ventral side	dorsal side and green
Tendrils
form	Bifid or trifid	bifid
color	RHS 143B	Green
texture	normal	normal
number	2 or <2 consecutive	2 or <2 consecutive
Buds
size	average	average
shape	round	round
color	RHS 139C and	Light brown
	RHS 181A
number	2/node	2/node
time of budbreak	early	early-medium
LEAVES
Size	small-medium	medium
Number of leaflets	5	5
Glossiness	Medium-high	medium
Cross section shape	V-shaped	V-shaped
Color (immature)
Upper surface	RHS 140B and	Pale green
	RHS 185B
Under surface	RHS 140B and	Pale green
	RHS 185B
Color (mature)
Upper surface	RHS 141A	Medium green
Under surface	RHS 141B	Darker green
Petiole
Length (cm)	6.2	6.0
Color (upper surface)	RHS 145C	green
Color (under surface)	RHS 145C	green
Stipule orientation	n.a.	n.a.
FLOWERS
Flowering period	End of May	End of May
(time of beginning
of flowering)
Sex	hermaphrodite	hermaphrodite
Size	Average	average
Diameter(cm)	0.3 (stamens)	0.3 (stamens)
Stamen Color	RHS 4D
Pistil Color	RHS 149A
Fragrance	average	average
Flower number (at	n.a.	n.a.
3rd node from tip of
lateral mean and
range)
Petals
Length (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Width (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Overall shape	calyptra	calyptra
Calyptra Color	RHS 134A	green
Sepals	None	None
Length (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Width (cm)	n.a.	n.a.
Overall shape	n.a.	n.a.
Color (immature)	n.a.	n.a.
Upper surface
Under surface
Color (mature)	n.a.	n.a.
Upper surface
Under surface
Pedicel
Length (mm)	7	7
Color	RHS 145C	green
FRUIT
Primocane time of	August 25th	September 7th
fruiting (1st pick)
Clusters
cluster weight	Low (g 170)	Low (g 230)
cluster shape	conical	conical
cluster length	mm 180	medium
avg. berries per	200	220
cluster
avg. clusters per	2	2
shoot
Berries
Berry size	g 1.8	g 1.0
Berry length (cm)	1.76	1.50
Berry width (cm)	1.56	1.50
Overall shape of	broad ellipsoid	globose
berry
Berry Texture	soft	soft
Berry Skin Color	RHS 137C	green
(immature)
Berry Skin Color	RHS 150B	green
(mature, at 19° Bx)
Berry Flesh Color	RHS 148B
Soluble solids (%)	22.6	21.1
Titratable acidity ( as	4.6	5.7
g/L tartaric acid)
Sugar/acid ratio	4.9	3.7
Firmness	soft	soft
Seeds	2-3	2-3
Seed Color	RHS 172A and
	RHS163B
Skin cracking?	no	rarely
Juice color	transparent	transparent
Berry taste	neutral	neutral
Eating quality	n.a.	n.a.
Berry uses	wine	wine
Shipping quality	n.a.	n.a.

Claims

1. A new and distinct grapevine, referred to as ‘SAUVIGNON KRETOS’, as herein described and illustrated by the characteristics set forth above.