The Concord grape is a
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
derived from the
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...
species ''
Vitis labrusca
''Vitis labrusca'', the fox grape, is a species of grapevines belonging to the ''Vitis'' genus in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The vines are native to eastern North America and are the source of many grape cultivars, including Catawba, C ...
'' (also known as fox grape) that are used as
table grape
Table grapes 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 varieta ...
s,
wine grapes
This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Vit ...
and juice grapes. They are often used to make grape
jelly, grape juice,
grape pies, grape-flavored
soft drinks, and candy. The grape is sometimes used to make
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
, particularly
sacramental
A sacramental in Christianity is a material object or action (in Latin ''sacramentalia'') ritually blessed by a priest to signal its association with the sacraments and so to incite reverence during acts of worship. They are recognised by the Cat ...
and
kosher wine. Traditionally, most commercially produced Concord wines have been finished sweet, but dry versions are possible if adequate
fruit ripeness is achieved. The grape is named after the
town in Massachusetts where it was developed.
The skin of a Concord grape is typically dark blue or purple, and often is covered with a glaucous
epicuticular wax
Epicuticular wax is a coating of wax covering the outer surface of the plant cuticle in land plants. It may form a whitish film or bloom on leaves, fruits and other plant organs. Chemically, it consists of hydrophobic organic compounds, mainly st ...
"bloom" that can be rubbed off. It is a slip-skin variety, meaning that the skin is easily separated from the fruit. Concord grapes have large seeds and are highly aromatic. The Concord grape is particularly prone to the physiological disorder
black spot.
In the United States 417,800 tons were produced in 2011. The major growing areas are the
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...
District of New York,
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...
,
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...
, Southwestern
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, and the
Yakima Valley in Washington.
They are sometimes found growing wild.
Usage
Concord grapes are often used to make grape
jelly and are only occasionally available as table grapes, especially in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. They are the usual grapes used in the jelly for the traditional
peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and Concord grape jelly is a
staple product in U.S. supermarkets. Concord grapes are used for grape juice, and their distinctive purple color has led to grape-flavored soft drinks and candy being artificially colored purple.
Methyl anthranilate, a chemical present in Concord grapes, is used to give "grape" flavor. The dark colored Concord juice is used in some churches as a non-alcoholic alternative to wine in the service of
communion. Concord grapes have been used to make
kosher wine and sacramental wine. The oldest sacramental winery in America, O-Neh-Da Vineyard, still produces a Concord wine for the altar. Non-toxic sprays that contain methyl anthranilate can be sprayed on the bushes as a cost-effective bird control management. The spray repellent renders the fruit and foliage unpalatable to the birds.
History
The Concord grape was developed in 1849 by
Ephraim Wales Bull in
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confl ...
.
Bull planted seeds from wild ''
Vitis labrusca
''Vitis labrusca'', the fox grape, is a species of grapevines belonging to the ''Vitis'' genus in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The vines are native to eastern North America and are the source of many grape cultivars, including Catawba, C ...
'' and evaluated over 22,000 seedlings before finding what he considered the ideal Concord grape.
Genetic testing confirmed that Concord grape has roughly one-third ''
Vitis vinifera
''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curr ...
'' parentage.
The selected Concord vine was planted next to other cultivars including
Catawba Catawba may refer to:
*Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas
*Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family
*Catawban languages
Botany
*Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other N ...
, which was later confirmed to be a parent of Concord using stematic
SSR analysis.
In 1853, Bull's grape won first place at the
Boston Horticultural Society Exhibition.
It was then introduced to the market in 1854. Dr.
Thomas Bramwell Welch developed the first Concord
grape juice
Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as '' must''. The sugars in grape juice allow it to be ...
in his house in 1869.
Through the process of
pasteurization, the juice did not
ferment.
Welch transferred the juice operations to
Westfield, New York
Westfield is a town in the western part of Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 4,513 at the 2020 census. Westfield is also the name of a village within the town, containing 65% of the town's population. This unique to ...
, processing 300 tons of grapes into juice in 1897.
Gallery
Image:ConcordGrapes2.jpg, Ripe grapes (foreground) and unripe grapes (background). Unripe grapes can be made into verjuice
Verjuice ( ; from Middle French ''vertjus'' 'green juice') is a highly acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes, crab-apples or other sour fruit. Sometimes lemon or sorrel juice, herbs or spices are added to change the flavour. In the Mi ...
.
File:Concord grapes on Grape Island.jpg, Concord grapes growing on Grape Island, Massachusetts.
File:Concord grape.jpg, Photographic plate of Concord grape from the book ''The Grapes of New York'', 1908 by Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick
See also
*
Muscadine
''Vitis rotundifolia'', or muscadine, is a grapevine species native to the southeastern and south-central United States. The growth range extends from Florida to New Jersey coast, and west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. It has been extensive ...
*
Scuppernong
References
External links
Concord Grape AssociationNational Grape Cooperative
{{Wines
Concord, Massachusetts
Table grape varieties
Red wine grape varieties