The Brandywines are a big family, of which I have experience with only two strains. In the first year after we bought our house, I tried what I assume were the “regular” Brandywines. I can’t recall if they were regular-leaf or potato-leaf plants, but they were pink and had all the other properties for which Brandywines are known — except flavor, and high yield.
Suffice it to say, the following year I ordered seeds for Brandywine OTV, a red-colored strain said to set fruit under a wider range of temperatures.
These, finally, were worth the garden space. They are still an order of magnitude beneath the intense flavor of the best black tomatoes, but they do offer a well-balanced flavor and a deliciously soft texture — a perfect BLT tomato.
I included one in my grafting experiments last year and found the result less dramatic than with other varieties. Vigor and production were slightly boosted, but still not to the supernatural levels of some other varieties. Still, a worthwhile choice. I will be looking for some other red or pink varieties to try in 2018.