Isabella has long been assumed to be a hybrid of a wild
Vitis labrusca x
Vitis vinifera. A vinifera parentage was inferred largely because of Isabella's susceptibility to mildew and black rot. Just recently, using microsatellite DNA analysis Dr. Erika Maul's group in the Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), Germany, confirmed the vinifera involvement in Isabella's pedigree which revealed that the vinifera parent is the very rare French (white) cultivar, Meslier petit (a.k.a. Petit Meslier). It is thought that it resulted from random
pollination when European
Vitis vinifera grapes were attempted to be established in America. It was popularly thought to have been discovered by a Mrs Isabella Gibbs of
South Carolina in 1816. One of the most popular grapes in the former
USSR, Isabella was brought to the former
Soviet nations of
Georgia,
Azerbaijan and
Moldova from France through
Odessa. For this reason this variety is also called
Odessa among
Georgians. Russian poet
Osip Mandelstam had described Isabella as "fleshy and heavy like a cluster of night itself". Radeda, a dry red
Abkhazian wine, is made from Isabella. Isabella is also found on the south shore of the
Black Sea in
Turkey. The
Pontic Greeks from
Trabzon have used it for wine production named "zamura". The berries are known to be used for the production of
Pekmez and the leaves for preparing
Sarma. The grape is also grown in
Australia around
Port Macquarie, from which a distinctive dessert wine style is made. ==Aliases==