Swenson Red is a favorite for many cold climate growers. The first introduction by the famed cold climate grape breeder Elmer Swenson, Swenson Red is a firm, juicy, and strawberry sweet red grape that is hardy to zone 4. Can be used for fresh eating but also jelly and juice. Its wine isn’t technically red as it would make for more of a rosé. Fermented without the skin, it makes for a crisp white wine. Zone 4.

Sometimes if you regularly see below -30F in the winter, it has been our experience and the experience of many who have planted out Swenson Red (and Marquette and others) over the years, that the tops may die the first few winters but that they’ll continually come up from the base the following year. This is totally okay because these are from rooted cuttings and not grafts, so those roots will be from Marquette, and you’ll get Marquette grapes when they come up in the Spring. It does set the grape back a little but eventually after a couple years it will be strong enough to take harder frosts without dying back to the roots.

These vines are vines from rooted cuttings and have a nice, robust root system.