Grape

Vitis spp.

Grapes are long-lived perennial vines that fruit on shoots arising from one-year-old canes. That growth pattern is central to how vineyards are trained and pruned.¹

Maine’s main constraints are winter injury and a short growing season. Native Vitis labrusca types and interspecific hybrids provide more hardiness than European Vitis vinifera varieties.¹

The strong aroma often called “foxy” is characteristic of many V. labrusca grapes, including Concord types. It is a varietal trait, not evidence that the fruit has spoiled.¹ In western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, the Lake Erie shore moderates the climate enough to support a major commercial grape belt, with Concord and Niagara especially important for juice, jelly, and other processed foods.²

That Concord-like musk comes partly from anthranilate esters. The slip-skin texture of many American grapes is another useful food distinction: the tough skin can separate from the soft, pulpy interior, carrying much of the pigment and tannin with it. Table grapes, wine grapes, and raisin grapes are selected toward different structures as well: wine grapes tend to be smaller and more acidic, table grapes larger and less tart, and raisin grapes thin-skinned, sugary, and loosely clustered so they dry more readily.³

The Northeast’s grape story is therefore not only about European wine grapes. Native American species and hybrids are better adapted to winter cold and disease pressure, and their intense aromas and acidity helped make them important juice and preserving fruits long before the region’s modern wine industry expanded.¹²