American Grape Varieties

Concord wine. A strong-flavored, dark red wine made from Concord grapes (a native American variety). 

In the first place, the green grape skin, covered by a thick cuticle, constitutes an effective barrier against parasites. Since Bonnet s (1903) initial research, a resistance scale of the principal Vitis species has been established based on the cuticle thickness of their respective berries. American varieties whose cuticle thickness varies from 4 p,m (Vitis rupestris) to 10 tim (Vitis coriacea) have better protected berries than European species (Vitis vinifera), whose cuticle thickness is from 1.5 to 3.8 p,m. This observation led to the production of V. vinifera and American species hybrids that are effectively more resistant to gray rot, but these hybrids do not usually produce quality grapes on the best terroirs. 

Chemistry of Winemaking from Native American Grape Varieties... 

Native American grapes (5) contain less sugar than Vitis vinifera varieties. A publication on California wine grapes (6) revealed that the average Balling of must from the recommended wine varieties for California ranged from 20° to 25° with a few exceptions above and below these limits. 

Figure 5-5. A. MALDI mass spectrum of the anthocyanin pigments in the grape variety Marechal Foch. This figure is from the article Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry analysis of grape anthocyanins , Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 50 199-203 by Sugui, J. A., Wood, K. V., Yang, Z., Bonham, C. C. and Nicholson, R. L. 1999. Reprinted by permission of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. B. MALDI mass spectrum of grape anthocyanins acquired on a MALDI mass spectrometer with delayed extraction capabilities. Peak identities are discussed in the text.

From the latter part of eighteenth century new varieties of grapes began to appear. Some of these appear to have been domestications of the native American species, V. labrusca and V. rotundifolia. Others of the new varieties appear to be inadvertent nursery crosses of local species and V. vinifera. Concord (the most popular) appears to be primarily V. labrusca. See Figure 1. Alexander (the first new variety) and Delaware were apparently V. labrusca x V. vinifera crosses. V. rotundifolia was not hybridized but a number of different selections of wild grapes were made. 

Of specific intense research interest for their exceptional anthocya-nin and resveratrol contents are native American grape species with the thickest, darkest skins—the two most famous being Concord and muscadine. Both varieties yield exceptional contents of skin anthocyanins and resveratrol. 

When you re purchasing the fresh produce, you will typically find two blueberry sizes, representing two distinct but related species the smaller, pea-size, low-bush variety, which was cultivated from original wild plants of Atlantic Canada and northern forest understories and the grape-size, American highbush species, which was developed specifically to yield larger fruit on taller bushes, making the crop easier to pick with mechanical harvesters. 

Figure 7.4 Native electrophoresis of proteins from different grape varieties (Reproduced from J. Agric. Food Chem., 1999, 47(1), 114-120, Moreno-Arribas et al., with permission from the American Chemical Society)...

Table VII.—American Grape Varieties Lake Shore District of Ohio...

Seedlessness, particularly for the American market, has become a very desirable attribute in table grapes. In contrast to the practice in Europe, where enormous quantities of the small berried, large seeded Chasselas dore are consumed, preference in the United States is definitely for seedless varieties. Nearly all of the new varieties being introduced are without seeds. 

Wilson, B. Strauss, C.R. Williams, P.J. (1986). The distribution of free and glycosidically-bound monoterpenes among skin, juice, and pulp fractions of some white grape varieties. American Journal ofEnology and Viticulture 37 (2), 107-111... 

The color of hybrids of American and European species of grapes was studied by Violante (1948). Although his procedure was not critical, he believed that his transmission curves justified concluding that hybrids contained a mixture of anthocyanins of both parents. He noted particularly the blue color in V. rupestris hybrids. Sudario (1953) reported the red color of American species of grapes and of their hybrids to have a lower methoxy content than that of V. vinifera grapes. The methoxy content of the color of the wines was lower and the differences between species less. Variable rates of loss of color from wines by different varieties of grapes were reported by Amerine and Winkler (1947), who concluded that a mixture of pigments were probably present. 

Bergman, H. F., and Magoon, C. A. 1945. Tartrate content of Maryland-grown American grape varieties. Proc. Am, Soc. Hort. Sci. 46, 253-254. 

Mattick, L.R. and Rice, A.C. (1976) Fatty acid composition of grape seed oU from native American hybrid grape varieties. Am. J. Enol. Viticult. 27, 88-90. 

PiLATTE, E. and C. Prahl. 1997. Biological deacidification of acid grape varieties by inoculation on must with a freeze-dried culture of Lactobacillus plantarum. Abstr. 48th American Society of Enology and Viticulture Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 48 386. 

The compounds responsible for the typical aromas of different grape varieties has not been clarified in each case. Esters contribute to the fruity notes. The flowery-fruity aroma note of American grapes (Vitis labrusca) is based on 2-aminobenzoic acid methylester (methyl anthranilate), which is not found in European varieties, 2-Isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine is responsible for the green paprika-hke aroma note of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. 

An American liqueur of orange color made by grape brandy flavored with shaddock (a variety of citrus fruit). 

The following phenolic compounds are present in the grape skin at maturity benzoic and cinnamic acid, flavonols and tannins. They are distribnted in the cells of the epidermis and the first snb-epidermal layers in both white and red grapes. In addition, the red grape skin contains anthocyanins, essentially located in the hypodermal cell layers. Exceptionally, in certain years, the cells adjacent to the pulp can be colored. The pulp itself is colored in the case of Tenturier varieties and some American vines or direct producer hybrids. Antho-cyanin composition varies from cultivar to cultivar, depending on the anthocyanidin substitution and heterosidic nature of the cultivar (see Volume 2, Section 6.2.3). 

Vincenzo Prosperi (1875-1955) was interested mainly in the production of new table grape varieties, but during his stay at the Royal Nursery of American Vines in Barletta (1903-1924) he devoted himself to the creation of hybrid rootstocks suited to the climatic conditions of Puglia. After the production of thousands of new vines and a comparative study pursued for nearly 30 years, the result of his work was the release of the hybrids 16-108 and 16-113 (V ripariaxV. rupestris), 17-118 (V. ripariax V. berlandieri) and 11-71 and 11-73 [V berlandierix(V. ripariaxV. rupestris)]. 

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