The research focused on old Romanian varieties of local distribution, with very limited growing area and also on those nowadays neglected, to identify, characterize and compare these cultivars with one another and on a larger geographic scale. Ampelografic characterization with 48 descriptors, photographs of shoot tip, leaf and bunch and genotyping using 13 SSR markers were applied together with literature references to confirm trueness to type. The sixty one accessions belonged to fifty one varieties. New synonymies were detected (e.g. 'Negru romanesc' = 'Batuta neagra'; 'Carcioasa' = 'Balint weiss'; 'Galbena marunta' = 'Kakotrygis'), assignments were modified (e.g. 'Galbena uriasa' = 'Mirkovaca' and not equal 'Galbena de Odobesti' as previously assumed), misnomers identified and unique genotypes were detected which had never been described before. Molecular data supported previous pedigree relationships and allowed new parent-offspring hypotheses to be formulated. The results were shown to be useful for updating the information on old Romanian grapevine germplasm.