Ives noir

Ives noir
Grape (Vitis)
Color of berry skin	Red
Species	interspecific hybrid grape
Origin	Ohio in 1844

Ives noir is a red hybrid grape variety that is grown throughout the United States. The grape is named after its propagator, Connecticut wine grower Henry Ives but the grapes pedigree and exact origin is not clear. After Prohibition in the United States, Ives was a popular grape used in the production of sweet port-style wines but saw its plantings steadily decrease throughout the 20th century as the vine's susceptibility to air pollution took its toll.

According to the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) the grape was first developed in Ohio in 1844 from a crossing of an unknown Vitis species and Hartford Proflic (itself a crossing of an unknown Vitis labrusca vine and Isabella that was developed in Connecticut). The National Grape Registry maintained by the University of California, Davis list 1850 as the release date. Writings from Henry Ives himself dates the crossing to 1840. However, the earliest record of Hartford Prolific being cultivated dates back to 1846 with the VIVC dating the crossing even later to 1849.

This inconsistency puts the pedigree of Ives noir in question. In other writings, Henry Ives claimed that he cultivated the grape from a seedling of a Vitis vinifera variety called either "Malaga" or "Madeira" but ampelographers as early as the late 19th century found little evidence to support any vinifera pedigree or relationship to the Malaga wine grapes Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel or the traditional Madeira wine grapes of Malvasia, Bual, Verdelho, Sercial, Terrantez and Bastardo. While DNA analysis of Ives noir has not yet taken place, today ampelographers believe that the grape is likely derived from unknown Vitis labrusca and Vitis aestivalis vines.

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