Vitis vinifera Ametista - Grape vine

This 'Ametista' vine, little known in Europe, is a seedless table grape variety that produces clusters of golden grapes that turn pink when ripe, with a delicate strawberry aroma. It is a moderately vigorous, productive vine that is very hardy and disease-resistant, and not demanding in terms of soil. It is easy to grow anywhere as long as it receives enough sunlight. The grapes can be harvested from early September in the South, and in September-October in colder regions. Very pleasant to taste, these grapes will delight children!

This 'Aperina Ametista' vine is part of a series of descendants of the Sultanine grape (also known as Thompson Seedless), a variety known as "seedless" and grown on a large scale for the production of raisins. They all have the common characteristic of producing apyrene grapes, whose seeds are atrophied. This plant belongs, like all vines, to the Vitaceae family.

The 'Ametista' vine is similar to the 'Katharina' variety in terms of taste and size of its grapes. It is a sarmentous and climbing bush, whose serpentine stems equipped with tendrils reach about 3m (10ft) in length over time. It forms a trunk, often knotty and twisted, covered with a fibrous and brown bark that flakes off in strips as it ages. Its long green stems bear beautiful rounded leaves with serrated edges, of medium green colour, turning yellow before falling in autumn.

It blooms in late spring, from May to June depending on the region, in the form of dense and well-formed clusters, with a pyramidal shape, branched, loaded with tiny green flowers. After pollination by insects, the berries that we call grapes are formed. They are rather large and oval to pointed in shape. Their skin changes from green to golden and then turns pink, especially on the parts exposed to the sun. They contain a translucent pulp, almost devoid of true seeds. Juicy and sweet, it reveals a pleasant fruity aroma. This variety is pruned in late winter, after frost, above 5 buds (buds) to promote the formation of new shoots that will flower.

Contrary to popular belief, seedless grapes are not genetically modified organisms, but they are the result of a complex selection process carried out by vine specialists. They are fruits borne by sterile hybrid plants, whose seeds, or pips, are unable to develop: reduced to their simplest expression, these seeds are barely detectable in the mouth.

Planted in the sun, the 'Aperina Ametista' vine will be very decorative along a wall, on a pergola, in the ground or in a large container on a terrace. The grapes can be consumed as they are, in juice, in fruit salads, in pies or in jams. This vine can be planted in the garden, on a pergola, in a container, or trained against a wall.