My WG are not tart at all if they ripen fully, but they do seem to keep tartness longer than most varieties and the not fully ripened ones are not so fun to eat.
I had some great White Golds this year. But I didn’t do as well on the red ones as the birds and squirrels had clued in by then. I got about half my Montmorency crop and a fifth of my Regina crop.
I tend to leave my cherries alone for a long time so I have not detect tartness in WG.
@scottfsmith - what is the best overall sweet cherries for you?
I may plant another one as people around me like them a lot. I am leaning toward Utah Giant or WG. Too bad, no one really gives reviews on the Pearl series.
@Drew51 - everywhere I read says Stella is a sweet cherry, not tart.
Yes, the first self fertile sweet cherry. The self fertile coming from tart cherries. Or so I thought. Looks like it comes from radiating pollen from Napoleon. The pollen produced three self fertile trees. One of them was used to produce Stella.
Well I guess I need to let White Gold hang longer here, on the north side. Most were sweet but as Scott mentioned the under ripe ones are quite sour. I seem to have a problem of uneven ripeness. I’m afraid waiting longer will result in rotten cherries. They were starting to shows signs of being over ripe, but not on the north side. I will use those for processing in the future.
I have not grown that many varieties so am not of strong opinions. I tried several obscure older varieties but had problems setting on all but Early Purple Guigne. That one I would say is very good though. I would have had a fair amount this year except the tree was not quite high enough and the deer enjoyed most. The few I ate were excellent. Black Tartarian is also excellent for me; it has not set much but is in a really low-light spot and I expect it will set more in the future. Regina needs to hang a long time or they are not good, and by the time they are ripe the birds have taken them… they are red colored for too long. So I am not super keen on it even though it is good in ever other respect. All the older cherries are less crunchy and many people don’t like non-crunchy cherries (similar to apples - modern varieties and tastes are crunchy, older varieties generally not crunchy). But the non-crunchy ones are less prone to cracking and to me they also taste better.
@scottfsmith
Thank you for you input. @thecityman also has given a strong endorsement for Black Tartarian. However, my neighbor planted two of them for six years, they never set a single fruit. She cut them down last year. She bought her from a big box store so I don’t know if both were mislabeled.
I am one of those who like crunchy fruit. I hope to find a cherry variety that is firmer than BG that tastes good and crack resistance. Maybe, I am asking too much 
.
Regina is excellent in terms of firmness, taste, and crack resistance. You just need to make sure to let them hang and keep the birds off.
Great to hear. I am surprised that we don’t hear much about Regina. Often, it’s only BG, WG and Black Tartarian.
We have made a pretty good PVC pipe structure for netting this year so no bird issue for cherries this year. Many thanks to @mrsg47 for gifting us several nettings. They came in handy.
I think brown rot is still a big issue where I am. Ww had quite dry June, That helped a lot, in addition to 2 spray of Indar.
Last year, we had more rain before cherry ripening. Even 3 spray of Indar, I had more BR on cherries last year than I did this year.
So glad it worked !
My Black Gold cherry flowered profusely every year. Last year, after fruit set, fruit sized up a bit. Then, the area where top of cherries met the stems turned brown and tons of fruit fell off. I was told it probably delayed reaction of fruit aborted due to late freeze. It was a likely scenario.
This year, we did not really have late freeze during bloom time. Still, there were enormous fruit drops. The fruit that dropped were smaller in size and happened earlier than last year’s drops. Many of these tiny fruitlets turned brown. I wonder if this was a sign of brown rot blossom blight. It happened to my Juliet cherry next to it, too.
@scottfsmith and others, what do you think?
Blossom blight should also be on the shoot tips, and it comes earlier. I think that is just lack of adequate pollination. My Regina did the exact same thing this spring, and it now has about a third of the cherries it usually does.
Thanks. Does your Attika set fruit this year? I look forward to your report.
You mentioned that Regina is firmer. How does it taste? As good as White Gold? If it is firm and taste as good as WG, I’m interested since it is also suggested by UMass.
I grafted Attika last year so it will be awhile for that one.
Regina is a very good cherry but I wouldn’t call it a top one. It is plenty firm though. White Gold is a top one, I am eating them now and they are wonderful. Also now I am eating Black Tartarian, I love it! It is small and soft though so not for everyone. This is the cherry we used to get as kids in Michigan. The Purple Guigne is also ripening now and it is not so sweet but otherwise is good. I am going to let them hang as long as I can to see if they improve. Regina also needs to really hang, I was picking them too early and they were not so good, but if they get a good long hang they are a very nice cherry.
I like White Gold more than Black Gold. It tasted better and firmer. I need to graft more white Gold to my BG.
Have you consider Mona? It’s described as nearly identical to Black Tartarian, bit firmer with a bit more Flavor.
-Jim
Biggest issue re. CA cherries is cracking. They don’t have rain there. Their dry to drought condition produce excellent fruit with little to no diseases.
When thse varieties are grown in the east. Rain shows and crack follows. I used to have Vandalay cherries that every single fruit cracked. Once cracking occurs, brown rot issue (already an issue) exacerbates.
I’d agree with Scott, these look like my cherries with inadequate pollination. We had the driest spring in a long time, and I popped some to see lack of hardened seeds. Unlikely to be a disease issue.
I’m not sure cherries were designed to be crunchy. Pulpy and juicy…pretty sure!
Firm may be a better word. I definitely prefer firm cherries to soft ones.
I planted a Black Pearl last year, hoping it does well as I murdered my Black Tartarian as part of my newbie education process. 
I’ll let you know how the firmness\meatiness is as well as crack resistance once it sets fruit. I’m in Delaware, so the standard East Coast shenanigans are in play.
-Jim
