Growing grapes for the leaves (stuffed...)

General Fruit Growing
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I’m wondering what kind of grapes are commonly grown for the leaves. One of my best farmers market customers is from Lebanon and expressed interest in grape leaves. I have no idea about taste/texture differences, but I’m pretty sure I’d want a species/variety with relatively large leaves and without excessively deep sinuses. I’m thinking I might be able to grow a variety for the leaves that would have no realistic hope of producing usable fruit in my climate (due to diseases that would affect the fruit.)

Does anyone here harvest and stuff his own grape leaves? Any recommendations on species/varieties to use? And any special growing tips for growing a grape vine particularly for leaves? For example, I know trees tend to grow larger leaves in the shade than in full sun, so if I were growing a grape vine particularly for the leaves, would it be better to grow it with some amount of shade.

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I’m betting most will be fine. My Black Spanish and Champanel make some good dolmades!

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I grew up in Egypt. The most common grape variety there (and in many middle eastern countries) is Seedless Thompson, and while I have never been involved in harvesting grape leaves there, I think Seedless Thompson is probably one of the varieties whose leaves are used for making Stuffed Grape Leaves. I also think that some other varieties would work too. If you have multiple varieties, you can give your customer multiple samples to try.

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