''Royalty'' (also known as ''Royalty 1390'') is a rouge

Californian wine California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted ''Vitis vinifera'' vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. I ...

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried ( raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see V ...

that was developed in 1938 by Dr. Harold P. Olmo of the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institu ...

Vitis International Variety Catalogue The Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) is a database of various species and varieties/cultivars of grapevine, the genus ''Vitis''. VIVC is administered by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding (''Institut für Rebenzüchtung Ge ...

(VIVC)
Royalty
'' Accessed: August 17th, 2012 The grape is a red fleshed

teinturier Teinturier grapes are grapes whose flesh and juice is red in colour due to anthocyanin pigments accumulating within the pulp of the grape berry itself. In most cases, anthocyanin pigments are confined to the outer skin tissue only, and the squee ...

which, unlike most red wine grapes, will produced red-tinged colored wine even without maceration time on the skins. The grape is a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

being produced from the ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curr ...

'' Trousseau gris variety from the

Jura wine Jura may refer to: Places *Jura, Scotland, island of the Inner Hebrides off Great Britain * Jūra, river in Lithuania Mountain ranges *Jura Mountains, on the French–Swiss–German border *Franconian Jura, south-central Germany *Swabian Jura, s ...

region of FranceJ. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes'' pg 161 Oxford University Press 1996 and the teinturier grape

Alicante Ganzin Alicante Ganzin is a red French wine grape variety. Unlike most ''Vitis vinifera'' wine grapes, Alicante Ganzin is a teinturier with dark flesh that produces red juice. Most varieties used to produce red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah ...

that, itself, is a hybrid of a ''

Vitis rupestris ''Vitis rupestris'' is a species of grape native to the United States that is known by many common names including July, Coon, sand, sugar, beach, bush, currant, ingar, rock, and mountain grape. It is used for breeding several French-American hy ...

'' variety and the ''Vitis vinifera'' grape Aramon. J. Robinson ''Vines Grapes & Wines'' pg 226 Mitchell Beazley 1986

History

''Royalty'' was first cultivated by Dr. Olmo in 1938 at the California Agricultural Experiment Station of UC-Davis but wasn't released for commercial use until 1958. It was released at the same time as

Rubired Olmo grapes are wine and table grape varieties produced by University of California, Davis viticulturist Dr. Harold Olmo. Over the course of his nearly 50-year career, Dr. Olmo bred a wide variety of both grapes by means of both crossing variet ...

another Olmo teinturier with Alicante Ganzin parentage. Like Rubired, ''Royalty'' was mostly grown in the Central Valley of California where it was used a blending grape to improve the color of red wines. However, ''Royalty'' showed itself to be more difficult to cultivate than Rubired and fell out of favor among many growers. While by the end of the 20th century there was still more than 6,000 acres (2,500 hectares) of Rubired in production in California there were only around 800 acres (320 ha) of ''Royalty'' in use.

Synonyms

Among the synonyms that Royalty has been known as include California S 26, Kek Royalti and Royalti.

References

{{reflist Red wine grape varieties Hybrid grape varieties