A grape is a
fruiting berry of the deciduous woody vines of the botanical genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten fresh as table grapes or
they can be used for making wine, jam, juice, jelly, grape seed extract,
raisins, vinegar, and grape seed oil. The altered consciousness produced by
wine has been considered religious since its origin. The Greeks worshiped
Dionysus and Bacchus and the Romans carried on his cult. Consumption of ritual
wine was part of Jewish practice since Biblical times and, as part of the
eucharist commemorating Jesus's Last Supper, became even more essential to the
Christian Church. Although Islam nominally forbade the production or
consumption of wine, during its Golden Age, alchemists such as Geber pioneered
wine's distillation for medicinal and industrial purposes such as the
production of perfume. The Turkic Uyghurs were even responsible for
reintroducing viticulture to China from the Tang dynasty onwards.
Grapes are a type of fruit that grow in clusters of 15 to 300, and can be
crimson, black, dark blue, yellow, green, orange, and pink. Most grapes come
from cultivars of Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine native to the
Mediterranean and Central Asia. Minor amounts of fruit and wine come from
American and Asian species such as:
Vitis labrusca, the North American table and grape juice grapevines
(including the Concord cultivar), sometimes used for wine, are native to the
Eastern United States and Canada. Vitis riparia, a wild vine of North America,
is sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. It is native to the entire
Eastern U.S. and north to Quebec. Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadines, used for
jams and wine, are native to the Southeastern United States from Delaware to
the Gulf of Mexico and Vitis amurensis is the most important Asian species.
Viticulture, or the science, production and study of grapes, first began in
California in the late 1700s when Spanish Friars arrived to establish Catholic
missions. Because the native grapes were sour and made poor wine, the Friars
brought over grapes from Europe and planted their own vineyards to make
sacramental wine. Their instincts were good. California’s warm, dry climate
turned out to be ideal for growing grapes. Today, more than 800,000 acres
across California are planted with fresh grape, wine and raisin vineyards and
99% of U.S. commercially grown table grapes are from California.
The California table grape season begins in late spring when the first
grapes are harvested in the Coachella Valley, California’s southernmost growing
region. By mid-July, Coachella’s season has ended and harvest moves north to
the San Joaquin Valley. Through late fall, the harvest of fresh grapes from
California continues.
Table grape
Are grapes intended for consumption while fresh, as opposed to grapes grown
for wine production, juice production, or for drying into raisins. Vitis
vinifera table grapes can be in the form of either seeded or non-seeded
varietals and range widely in terms of colour, size, sweetness and adaptability
to local growing conditions. Common commercially available table grape
varieties such as Thompson Seedless and Flame Seedless are favoured by growers
for their high yield and relative resistance to damage during shipment. Other
less common varietals such as Cotton Candy, Kyoho or Pione are custom hybrids
bred for size, appearance and specific flavour characteristics.
Seedless Grapes
Seedless grapes are a cultivar of grape that are generally favoured as table
grapes or, but are also great for use in smooth jams, jellies, juices and
preserves. Like all grapes, they are self pollinating, making them easy to
grow.
Seedless grape are the plants that grow from clone method. So instead of
growing them from seeds, they're grown from cuttings taken from shiraz
grapesexisting plants.
Obviously, the first seedless grapes were from a plant that arose through
mutation - a genetic change - that meant that it didn't have seeds. And,
presumably, some grower noticed this. He or she would have taken a little shoot
or a stem off the plant, put it in the ground, and a new plant - genetically
identical to the seedless parent - would have grown.
Wine Grape
Wine Grapes Are Lean and Mean Wine grapes are grown to produce the sweetest
and most potent grapes. They are smaller, riddled with seeds, have thicker
skins and higher juice content (vs. pulp). Wine grapes are delicate and
difficult to transport. When you eat a fresh wine grape they ooze apart leaving
you with crunchy bitter seeds and chewy grape skin. Wine grapes also tend to be
very sweet, they are harvested at the time when their juice is approximately
24% sugar by weight. By comparison, commercially produced "100% grape
juice", made from table grapes, is usually around 15% sugar by weight.
Hybrid grape
are grape varieties that are the product of a crossing of two or more Vitis
species. This is in contrast to crossings between grape varieties of the same
species, typically Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine. Hybrid grapes are
also referred to as inter-specific crossings or "Modern Varieties."
Due to their often excellent tolerance to powdery mildew, other fungal diseases,
nematodes, and phylloxera, hybrid varieties have, to some extent, become a
renewed focus for European breeding programs. The recently developed varieties,
Rondo, and Regent are examples of newer hybrid grape varieties for European
viticulturalists. Several North American breeding programs, such as those at
Cornell and the University of Minnesota, focus exclusively on hybrid grapes,
with active and successful programs, having created hundreds if not thousands
of new varieties.
Hybrid varieties exhibit a mix of traits from their European, Asiatic, and
North American parentage. Those varieties which derive from Vitis labrusca
parentage (such as those still used in the production of Austrian Uhudler) have
a strong "candied" or "wild strawberry" aroma, while those
that derive from Vitis riparia often have a herbaceous nose with flavours
reminiscent of black currants. Most hybrid grape varieties struggle to produce
adequate tannin for red wine production, and usually display a level of acidity
that exceeds what consumers of wines produced from vitis vinifera are
accustomed to. These attributes proved unpopular in Europe, and were among the
factors that led to the prohibition of the commercial growth of hybrid vines in
many countries in Europe.
Rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new
above-ground growth can be produced. It can refer to a rhizome or underground
stem. In grafting, it refers to a plant, sometimes just a stump, which already
has an established, healthy root system, onto which a cutting or a bud from
another plant is grafted. In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other
berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in
nursery conditions before planting them out. The plant part grafted onto the
rootstock is usually called the scion.
To choose the rootstock is a fundamental operation that can jeopardize the
future of the vineyard. Wine grape scion varieties are nearly all of Vitis
vinifera parentage. This species is prone to attack by two root pests, grape
phylloxera and parasitic nematodes. Vitis vinifera vines can be protected from
these pests by grafting them to rootstock varieties derived from other vine
species and resistant hybrids. Many of the rootstocks used for this purpose are
adapted to particular soil types, chemistry and fertility. They may also be
used to overcome vineyard problems such as drought, excess water, and salinity.
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