The easiest way for me to describe foxiness is the taste of Welch’s grape juice or grape jelly. That sweet, sort of musky concord grape flavor.
You wouldn’t get a less sweet wine by blending in another varietal for wines like Mogen David and Manischewitz because they aren’t sweet because of the sugar content of the grapes. They’re sweet because they are sweetened with corn syrup or cane sugar *after *fermentation. (And in order for it to be labeled as concord wine, it’d have to be made of at least 75% concord grapes.)
Concord grapes can be fermented dry like any other, but they still have that tell-tale foxiness that can sometimes be perceived as sweetness.
Of course, as soon as you go over the border into NY, they have most of the varieties in their liquor stores… at least they did in Syracuse (I know, much closer to the vinyard). I miss traveling to Syracuse, as I’d usually come back with a case or two in the trunk. Sweet Walter, and Love My Goat are my favorites, I wish I could get more of them in NH, and I’d even tolerate a drive into MA to get it. From their web site (http://www.bullyhill.com/distributors/distributors.asp) it does look as though nearly anything can be ordered… but you’d probably have to buy the case, unless your retailer is willing to add some of the case to their shelf.
I appreciate good wines. I’ve had my share of both bad and good homemade wine, and the most important factor has been the grapes. People who buy the rejects from vintners or god knows what from the grocery store typically make poor wine. Those who spend the money for very high quality grapes are capable of making very good wines at home, assuming they know what they’re doing.
So I guess finding wine made from Concord grapes is doable. As well as wines made from native vines or wines obtained from local vineyards, even if they are non-native species.
But has anyone ever had, heard of, or made wine made from the long green grapes? I’m sorry, I’m not sure what they’re officially called. Or even the red seedless grapes. Those are pretty sweet, but from what you guys are saying, they’re still no where near as sweet as they’d need to be for a tolerable wine. I’ve never tasted a wine grape before, so I’m unsure on the comparison.
You’re talking about Thompson Seedless. (And “Flame” Seedless for the red, I believe.)
No, I don’t know of anyone who has tried before.
And yes, wine grapes are thoroughly different in flavor/sweetness. If you can ever get a taste of some Gewurtztraminer grapes … yowzers. If wine wasn’t so good, it’d be almost criminal that people don’t eat these things.
If you swing out to Millbrook Winery in NY (East of Poughkeepsie, only a few miles from the CT border) sometime next month, you could probably go see them doing the crush and ask to sample a grape or two. They probably do more varieties than anyone else in the Valley, and a fair bit of their fruit is from the company’s vineyards in California, so there’s some crazy-good-fruit coming in. (Be warned though: expect big seeds and tough skins for most varieties. Oh, yes–and lots of wasps in the air.)
Wines made from North American species of grapes have been historically called “foxy” – a slight musky flavor and smell that just seems wrong to an oenophile. The story goes that people centuries ago didn’t know why the grapes were giving this flavor, so they assumed the foxes, badgers, skunks and other “weird” North American animals were transferring their muskiness to the ground, the plants, the people and their politics – whatever.
Thomas Jefferson knew that the US could really boost it’s young economy if we could produce decent wine. But Europeans won’t drink Concord wine. And European varieties won’t grow in America – there is a parasitic nematode that European varieties can’t resist well. To this day, US vineyards are started with Concord grapes, and the varietal of choice is grafted onto healthy rootstock (or that’s done at the nursery and the completed graft is planted, or there are some somewhat resistant varieties being bred.) This is not trivial – that is not the traditional way, and Europeans don’t much care for non-traditional wine production. And that nematode is spreading through Europe, only small, isolated wineries are able to avoid it, so far. So they’re kinda stuck.
At any rate, Jefferson tried a bunch of things to improve Concord wine – trying to age it better, trying to pair it with the proper (American) foodstuffs, trying to “sell” foxyness as the trendy thing of the day, or blending the wine with herbs. On that last point, let me share with you a recipe from my favorite winemaking site.
The recipes are easy to follow, and he explains the reasoning well on that page. But the whole site is a through treatment of the subject of home winemaking.
Trust me, follow his recipe. It works… though I add 1 lb of lactose at bottling (carb with 4-6oz of corn sugar depending on your ‘fizz preference’). It sweetens it up, and the carbonation adds some mouth feel.
