Grapevine named ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’

Abstract

A new and distinct variety of grapevine named ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’, primarily adapted to the growing conditions of the temperate regions, and characterized by its medium vigor; semi-erect growth habit; wedge-shaped leaves with medium texture; small cylindrical shaped green-yellow berry clusters with a golden nuance on the sunny side of the berries; early maturing, soft berry flesh with no coloration and neutral taste primarily for winemaking; and resistance to winter temperatures (to −23° 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 RYTOS’.

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 RYTOS’.

The new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’ 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 RYTOS’ originated from a cross made by the inventors in 2002 in Udine, Italy. The female or seed parent is the grapevine variety Vitis vinifera cv. ‘Sauvignon’ (unpatented), and the male or pollen parent is the grapevine variety Vitis cv. ‘Bianca’ (Eger 2×Bouvier) (unpatented).

The new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’ 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 RYTOS’ 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 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 RYTOS’, which in combination distinguish this grapevine plant as a new and distinct variety.

• • 1. Medium vigor;
  • 2. Semi-erect growth habit;
  • 3. Medium size wedge-shaped leaves, with a pale green upper and lower surface and medium texture;
  • 4. Small, dense cylindrical clusters with 1 small size wing; early maturing, green-yellow berries with golden nuances on the sunny side of the berries, soft flesh, neutral taste, and no flesh coloration, primarily used for winemaking.
  • 5. Elliptic cross section, brownish color primocanes and floricanes with no lenticels and short-medium internodes (10-11 cm) of 10 mm diameter.
  • 6. Harvesting time in early September (Middle Friuli, North-Eastern Italy); and
  • 7. Resistance to winter temperature (−23° C.), resistance to downy mildew, and tolerance to powdery mildew.

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

TABLE 1
Comparison with Parent Varieties
	New Cultivar	Female Parent	Male Parent
Charac-	‘SAUVIGNON	‘Sauvignon’	‘Bianca’
teristic	RYTOS’	(unpatented)	(unpatented)
vigor	medium	medium	strong
growth	Semi-erect	Semi-erect	semi-erect
habit
leaf	medium size, pale	Medium size, green	medium size,
	green color (upper	color (upper surface),	pale green color
	surface), pale green	pale green color	(upper surface),
	color (lower surface),	(lower surface),	green color (lower
	wedge-shaped,	circular shape,	surface), no hairs
	medium texture, no	medium texture,	in both surfaces,
	hairs in both surfaces	prostrate hairs	wedge-to-kidney-
		present in upper	shaped, medium
		surface and in lower	texture
		surface
cluster	Low size, cylindrical	Low size,	Low size, conical,
	with 1-2 middle size	cylindrical-conical	with 1-2 wings,
	wings, very dense,	with 1-2 wings,	medium bunch
	berry skin with	dense, berry skin	density, berry skin
	green-yellow color,	with green-yellow	with green-yellow
	soft flesh, neutral	color, slightly firm	color, slightly firm
	taste, no flesh	flesh, herbaceous	flesh, neutral taste,
	coloration	taste, no flesh	no flesh coloration
		coloration
primocane	elliptic cross section,	Circular section,	oblate cross
and	brownish color,	brownish color,	section, brownish
floricane	lenticels: absent,	lenticels: absent,	color, lenticels:
	short-middle	short-middle	absent, medium
	internodes (10-11	internodes (10-11	internodes,
	cm), diameter: 10	cm), diameter 10	diameter small
	mm	mm	(about 8 mm)
harvesting	Medium (early	Medium (Early	early (end of
time	September in Middle	September in Middle	August to mid-
	Friuli, North-Eastern	Friuli, North-Eastern	September in
	Italy)	Italy)	Middle Friuli,
			North-Eastern
			Italy)
resistances	resistant to winter	Average resistance to	resistant to cold
	temperature (−23°	winter temperature	not known;
	C.), resistant to	(−15° C.),	resistant to downy
	downy mildew,	susceptible to downy	mildew, resistant
	tolerant to powdery	mildew, susceptible	to powdery
	mildew,	to powdery mildew	mildew

Of the many commercial cultivars known to the present inventor, the most similar to the new grapevine ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’ 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 RYTOS’ 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 RYTOS’.

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show a typical fruit cluster of ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’, taken on Sep. 7, 2012 in Udine, Italy.

FIG. 2 shows a typical mature leaf (upper surface, left and lower surface, right) of ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’, taken on Jun. 15, 2012 in Udine, Italy.

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

FIG. 4 shows a close-up view of typical mature fruit of ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’, taken on Aug. 25, 2012 in Udine, Italy

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

The following description of ‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’ unless otherwise noted, is based on observations taken during the 2011, 2012, and 2013 growing seasons(s) in Udine (UD), Italy and Fossalon di Grado (GO), Italy, from plants dug from a nursery located in Rauscedo (PN), Italy during the beginning of December 2007 and planted approximately 16 to 20 weeks later in Udine (UD), 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 RYTOS’ 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.

		‘SAUVIGNON’
Characteristic	‘SAUVIGNON RYTOS’	(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 −23° C.	down to −15° C.
VINE
Vigor	Medium	medium
Trunk diameter	6 cm	6.5 cm
Bark
color	RHS 177B	Dark brown
underbark color	RHS 179B	Light brown
texture	n.a.	n.a.
Canes
length	Internode length cm 10.5	Internode length about
		cm 11
width	10 mm	8 mm
Shoots
shape	Semi-erect, elliptic cross	Semi-erected, cross
	section, surface with	section: circular,
	stripes, nodes and	surface: smooth, nodes
	internodes without hairs	and internodes without
		hairs
color	Internodes with red (RHS	Internodes with green
	185B) and green (RHS	color on ventral and
	144B) pigmentation on the	dorsal side, nodes with
	dorsal side and green on	green ventral and dorsal
	the ventral (RHS 144B)	side
	side
Tendrils
form	Bifid	bifid
color	RHS145C and RHS184D	Green
texture	normal	normal
number	2 or <2 consecutive	2 or <2 consecutive
Buds
size	average	average
shape	round	round
color	RHS139C and RHS181A	Light brown
number	2/node	2/node
time of budbreak	medium	early-medium
LEAVES
Size	medium	medium
Number of leaflets	3-5	5
Glossiness	Medium-high	medium
Cross section shape	V-shaped	V-shaped
Color (immature)
Upper surface	RHS 143B and RH5185B	Pale green
Under surface	RHS 143B and RH5185B	Pale green
Color (mature)
Upper surface	RHS 143B	Medium green
Under surface	RHS 143C	Darker green
Petiole
Length (cm)	6.2	6.0
Color (upper	RHS 145B and RHS185B	green
surface)
Color (under	RHS 145B and RHS185B	green
surface)
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	RHS4 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
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	September 17th	September 7th
fruiting (1st pick)
Clusters
cluster weight	Low (g 192)	Low (g 230)
cluster shape	cylindrical	conical
cluster length	mm 180	medium
avg. berries per	150	220
cluster
avg. clusters per	2	2
shoot
Berries
Berry size	g 1.3	g 1.0
Berry length (cm)	1.68	1.50
Berry width (cm)	1.40	1.50
Overall shape of	ellipsoid	globose
berry
Berry Texture	soft	soft
Berry Skin Color	RHS 137C	green
(immature)
Berry Skin Color	RHS 2C and RHS 154C	green
(mature, at 19° Bx)
Berry Flesh Color	RHS 148B
Soluble solids (%)	22.6	21.1
Titratable acidity	4.8	5.7
(as g/L tartaric
acid)
Sugar/acid ratio	4.7	3.7
Firmness	soft	soft
Seeds	2-3	2-3
Seed Color	RHS 163B and RHS165A
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 RYTOS’, as herein described and illustrated by the characteristics set forth above.