Victoria

Victoria is a premium white table grape variety, developed at the renowned Institute of Viticulture in Drăgășani, Romania, by the recognized breeders Victoria Lepădat and Gheorghe Condei. It was created through the planned and successful crossing of Cardinal and Ambra, Alphonse Lavallée x Chasselas Lila. Due to its exceptional, giant cluster size, unsurpassed fleshy crispness, early ripening, and fantastic resistance during long-distance transport, it is currently the most popular, most sought-after, and economically most profitable white table grape variety on the European and global markets.

It is a fully self-fertile variety. The flower is morphologically hermaphroditic, properly developed and bisexual, with an exceptionally high and stable level of self-pollination and abundant pollen. This ensures perfect and uniform berry set within the cluster, without any tendency toward flower shatter or undesirable millerandage, even in unfavorable springs. It flowers medium-early.

The vine is moderately vigorous to vigorous, with strong, thick, and uniform shoots that carry large, light green to dark green leaves. It requires a standard, stable, and well-tensioned training structure, such as a trellis with multiple wire levels. It forms very well and gives maximum commercial results both on low and medium training systems, such as the double Guyot system, and on high arbors, pergolas, and tendones. It enters full bearing extremely early, often producing its first commercial clusters as early as the second year after planting grafted grapevines. It produces regular, stable, extremely abundant, and record-breaking yields per vine. Due to its tendency toward overcropping, mandatory canopy management is required, including thinning of green shoots and removal of excess clusters in early summer, so that the vine does not overcrop and the fruit does not lose size.

It belongs to the group of very early summer table grape varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it ripens very early, in the first half of August, usually between August 5 and 15, only about ten days after the early Cardinal variety, successfully opening the season of early white table grapes.

Harvesting takes place during August. The fruit develops its recognizable attractive light green color about ten days before the flesh reaches full technological maturity, but harvesting is recommended only when the clusters have reached full maturity and turned an attractive golden-yellow color. The fruit can remain on the vine for a very long time after ripening without losing flesh firmness or quality.

It is characterized by unsurpassed, premium post-harvest storage ability. In modern cold storage facilities and controlled conditions, it can be successfully kept for 1 to even 2 months. Due to its exceptionally thick, elastic skin and compact flesh, it tolerates picking, sorting, mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport perfectly, without any risk of berries detaching from the pedicel or being crushed in crates. It is the absolute leader for mass export to demanding global markets.

The cluster is exceptionally large, massive, luxurious, and visually impressive, with an average weight of 500 to 900 g, while with excellent agricultural practice individual clusters can easily reach weights of over 1.5 kg. It is cylindrical-conical in shape, with noticeable lateral wings, moderately compact to compact. The berry is very large to giant, with an average weight of 10–14 g and a length exceeding 30 mm, regular in its cylindrical-oval shape. The skin is thicker, firm, and smooth, with a beautiful golden-yellow color at full maturity, covered with a moderate waxy bloom. The flesh is exceptionally firm, compact, fleshy, and recognizably crisp, typical of a firm-fleshed grape, and moderately juicy. The taste is outstanding, refreshing, harmoniously sweet, mild, and very pleasant.

It is moderately resistant to fungal diseases. It is susceptible to downy mildew, Plasmopara viticola, and powdery mildew, Uncinula necator, so it requires standard preventive chemical protection. On the other hand, it is characterized by exceptionally high natural resistance of the berries to cracking caused by rain and to gray mold, Botrytis, which gives it a major commercial advantage in humid and rainy summers compared to the sensitive Cardinal. It shows moderate resistance to low winter frosts, with winter buds successfully tolerating temperatures of -15°C to -17°C, so it requires favorable and well-sunlit vineyard sites.

The root system is strong, deep, and branched. It uses moisture and nutrients from deeper soil layers very well, tolerating dry summer periods without difficulty, and gives the best results on deep, permeable, light, warm, and moderately fertile soils.

Our grafted grapevine plants are produced on highly compatible, certified rootstocks: Kober 5BB, Berlandieri x Riparia Kober 5BB, and its selected clones. This rootstock ensures a perfect and long-lasting anatomical graft union with Victoria, ideally controls its vigor, accelerates uniform ripening, and provides outstanding adaptability to calcareous and skeletal soils with a high content of active lime.