Vitis "severnyi" inter-specific grape

V. amurensis at the Patterson Arboretum

In my continued quest to hunt for the most cold hardy fruiting plants I have been looking at grapes lately. A while back I posted about visiting the Patterson Arboretum in Saskatoon on the University of Saskatchewan grounds. At the arboretum they grow a species of grape, Vitis amurensis that is native to Eastern Siberia and whose genetics make up a large part of new experimental varieties being produced at the U of S. While looking into this I read this project summary from Tyler Kaban who at the time was a Master's student working on grapes. In the release it is mentioned that it was a variety called "severnyi" that was used to introduce the hardiness genetics from amurensis.

V. "Frontenac" containing no amurensis
genetics, no leaf indent

Lo and behold a couple weeks later I was at Dutch Growers looking for a Frontenac grape and came across Severnyi. I didn't buy it at the time because I couldn't quite remember all the details of the variety. The project summary previously mentioned provided some basic information on the variety,

• Severnyi's parents are a Vitis amurensis and  Seyanets Malingre (which itself is the open pollinated product of Malingre Precose, a French white vinifera grape).
• Severnyi is also commonly called Severnji, this appears to be an artifact of translation
• Requires cross pollination



V. "Severnyi" showing the deep leaf
indents due to its amurensis genetics

• Severnyi has been used as an intermediete in Russian and other's grape breeding, producing two more renowned varieties, Saperavi Severnyi, and Cabernet Severnyi

Cabernet Severnyi is one of the most popular varieties at a vineyard in Quebec called Carone who produce a wine called "Venice".

In term of hardiness the tag that it came with from Dutch Growers indicated Zone 3, one zone hardier than the most optimistic rating for Frontenac. I wish I had a list to provide of other carriers of this variety as well as any of its derivatives. Anyone with this information please let me know!