Early Victor
(Labrusca, Bourquiniana?)
Early Victor is highest in quality of early black grapes. It is
especially pleasing to those who object to the foxiness so marked in
Hartford and Champion. Were the season but a few days earlier and
bunch and berry a little larger, Early Victor would be the best grape
to start the grape season. The vines are hardy, healthy, vigorous and
productive, with growth and foliage resembl
ng Hartford, which is
probably one of its parents, Delaware being the other. The bunches are
small, compact, variable in shape and the berries are about the size
and shape of those of Delaware. Its season is that of Moore Early or a
little later, although, like many black grapes, the fruit colors
before it is ripe and is often picked too green. Unfortunately the
fruit is susceptible to black-rot and shrivels after ripening. John
Burr, Leavenworth, Kansas, first grew Early Victor about 1871.
Vine vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive. Canes long, numerous,
slender, dark brown, surface pubescent; nodes enlarged; internodes
long; tendrils continuous, bifid, sometimes trifid. Leaves thick;
upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface white, heavily
pubescent; lobes three to five, terminal one acute; petiolar sinus
intermediate in depth and width; basal sinus shallow and wide when
present; lateral sinus narrow. Flowers semi-sterile, open in
mid-season; stamens upright.
Fruit very early, does not keep well. Clusters small, variable in
shape, cylindrical, frequently single-shouldered, compact; pedicel
short, covered with numerous small warts; brush wine-colored or
pinkish-red. Berries small, round, dark purplish-black, dull with
heavy bloom, persistent; skin thin, tough, adherent, contains much
red pigment, astringent; flesh greenish-white, opaque,
fine-grained, aromatic, vinous; good. Seeds adherent, one to four,
broad, notched, blunt, dark brown.