Sour Grapes

December 24, 2024 6:56 PM

America invented the perfect grape, then banished it into obscurity. I found out why. (SLSlate)
posted by DirtyOldTown (58 comments total)

I love them. I love the actual grapes, and i also love the artificial grape flavor based on them. The rest of the family is always sad when I buy them instead of boring table grapes.
posted by jordemort at 7:28 PM on December 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

When I read the post, I was "This had better not be about Concord grapes" and then I RTA and lo, it was about Concord grapes. If you are pressed for time, here's the tl:dr... Concords were "banished into obscurity" because they have seeds and do not ship well. That said, they are delightful grapes, with the grapiest flavor ever, and you've had them in grape juice and grape jelly even if you have never eaten one fresh. They are better (and grapier) fresh.
posted by which_chick at 7:56 PM on December 24, 2024 [16 favorites]

I, um, have always been able to buy Concord grapes wherever I've been? Like, for my entire life in North America? Like, in bags, alongside all the other grapes, even the red ones. I'm missing something, aren't I.

...I mean, I saw them in Edmonton, in Eugene, in Nashville, in St. Louis, in Chicago, in Portland, and in the Bay Area?

Does obscurity mean something different these days? I'm asking that genuinely, like maybe "obscurity" means "anything other than overwhelming dominance equals obscurity"? Y'know, how any film other than the most popular film must necessarily have been "forgotten".

Or maybe I'm blessed.

...if so, that just makes me angrier, because seriously if this counts as a blessing then fuck god and jesus both.
posted by aramaic at 8:09 PM on December 24, 2024 [13 favorites]

Or maybe I'm blessed.

...if so, that just makes me angrier, because seriously if this counts as a blessing then fuck god and jesus both.

posted by aramaic

So beautifully apt. Username checks out.

But seriously aramaic, I've had concorde grapes available in grocery stores for a couple weeks a year every August / September, and fresh from neighbours' vines since I wasa kid too. Not as obscure as the article makes it sound, but not as accessible year-round as thompsons, that's for sure.
posted by CookTing at 8:35 PM on December 24, 2024 [4 favorites]

These are the only grapes I truly enjoy.
posted by Playdoughnails at 8:39 PM on December 24, 2024

(Just to be clear, I am not grumpy at the OP, or the article, I’m just so terribly confused. All the time, apparently.)

Stephin Merritt should be singing a song about this, right about now I’d guess.

I thought esoteric knowledge would be so much more exciting than it seems to be. Thunder, Perfect Mind my ass.

(sifts grains of sand thru his fingers while the Sun sets)
posted by aramaic at 8:43 PM on December 24, 2024 [4 favorites]

I don’t really understand why the author of this piece left out the story of how Concord grapes saved the French wine industry during the 19th Century.

Phylloxera was devasting French vineyards and all attempts to limit its ravages had failed, until someone noticed that Concord grapes just kind of shrugged it off. And voilà!, it turned out that the cultivated French varietals thrive when grafted onto Concord rootstocks. (Of course, for the purposes of this comment, I passover over the fact that French grapes caught phylloxera from imported American plants in the first place.)

Alan Davidson mentions in his Oxford Guide to Food that Concord grape juice is so vivid that Europeans generally assume it’s artificially colored.
posted by jamjam at 10:10 PM on December 24, 2024 [7 favorites]

Any time we could get Concord grapes, my mom would buy them and make pie. And it was amazing. It was a process that involved skinning the grapes (the skins were kept) and then seeding them. It involved many steps! But it was always worth it.

I seem to have a sense they were seasonal where we were (Virginia) but I don't know if that was just because my mom only wanted to do this whole thing every so often.

Now I want some Concord grape pie. Thanks a lot.
posted by edencosmic at 10:24 PM on December 24, 2024 [4 favorites]

An acquaintance I had years ago who did a lot of foraging would always have an excess of Concord grape juice for some reason. I'm not a fan of grape juice generally but that fresh Concord grape juice? That was incredible. But yeah they are pretty seasonal here in Southern Ontario. I see them for a very short window (longer than my sour cherries but not much longer) and not usually at the large grocery chains.

Does obscurity mean something different these days?

When you need a filler article to get eyeballs on a website you need to lean in heavy on obscurity, secrecy, and mystery in the headline. My personal pet peeve is the phrase "[name of large company] quietly released..."
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:27 PM on December 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

One interesting thing about living in Japan is that kind of the default grape during grape season is Concord-style purple grapes, often with seeds and tannic skins (which in many cases will slip right off if given the chance). There's a bunch of different varieties available here, and they all taste phenomenal. For anyone who's only ever had crunchy seedless table grapes, Concords and similar styles are an absolute revelation.
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:35 PM on December 24, 2024 [3 favorites]

I can get Concord grapes at the supermarket, but not all year. The only reason you get Thompsons all year is because Chile harvests in the North's off-season.
There were slipskin grapes purchased at the store and eaten at home in my fanily until the late 50s. They are okay, but I like other varieties better and I don't mind the seeds.
A few years back, supermarkets were selling fruit -- like apples -- that were grape-flavored. I never ate one of these monstrosities but I saw one cut open and, yes, it was purple inside.
posted by CCBC at 11:38 PM on December 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

there's a hybrid of Concords and Thompson seedless
posted by brujita at 1:30 AM on December 25, 2024 [6 favorites]

My personal pet peeve is the phrase "[name of large company] quietly released..."

A) Literaryhero quietly released a deadly fart.

One interesting thing about living in Japan is that kind of the default grape during grape season is Concord-style purple grapes

B) yeah Korea is similar. Only in the past five years or so have we gotten regular access to different grape varieties.

...I mean, I saw them in Edmonton, in Eugene, in Nashville, in St. Louis, in Chicago, in Portland, and in the Bay Area?

C) Lou Bega?

D) My own personal opinion is that almost any fruit that requires you to spit out both seeds and skin are bullshit. I'm looking at you, semi-ripe persimmons (no idea what the actual name is in English, but you know what I mean, the hard orange-ish ones with the big seeds inside).

E) Forgive me Li-Young Lee
posted by Literaryhero at 2:03 AM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]

It's possible that these are available in supermarkets - but I'd wager that said supermarket would be a somewhat upscale one in a larger city. These are seasonal and don't ship well.

I get Concords from my CSA - but only one pound at a go, which isn't enough for me to work with. I'd want more than one pound so I could make jam or juice; I find the seeds and skins make them too fiddly to eat. I think I've made a cake in the past, or bought extra at the farmer's market to make juice out of them. But the one lone pound I get is a little annoying.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:50 AM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]

There are two times of the year I can buy grapes I actually like, in the spring when the Muscat grapes are in season and being imported from the southern hemisphere, and in September when local Concord grapes are available. My family aren't fans of either and are happy eating the generic red and green seedless grapes that are available year round.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:38 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

I'm lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that has multiple concord grape vines and charitable neighbors who love when people pick them. Concord grape vines in the PNW grow like crazy and produce SO MUCH, they're often times as cheap as flavorless table grapes due to sheer quantity and the need to move them before they spoil. It's a blessed invasion of grapes!
posted by Philipschall at 4:40 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

I had Concord grapes in Japan. They tasted good, but in my opinion the seeds made it not worth the effort, plus what's the point of grapes if you don't even get to eat the tart, astringent grape skin? That's the best part.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:47 AM on December 25, 2024

Strange article doesn't bother to talk about the general family of New World grapes of which Concord is a member: Vitus labrusca. That includes Niagra and Catawba. And while we're at it, there are also muscadine grapes, Vitus rotundifolia, which includes Scuppernong, possibly the coolest name ever for a grape.

Wine can and is made from all of these varietals. There are also New and Old World hybrids, like Baco noir and Seyval blanc, both actively cultivated for making wine.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:07 AM on December 25, 2024 [6 favorites]

I’m lucky to know a place where they grow. I gather them, then walk the land, spitting seeds as I go. This is an ideal experience.

I’m also lucky that someone once made a Concord grape pie for me. This is a sign of very deep love, because it is so much work.
posted by Riverine at 6:21 AM on December 25, 2024 [6 favorites]

Growing up in the UK, where Concord grapes did not exist, I always thought the American “grape” flavor was the canonical example of Cheap Crappy American “Food”, like aerosol cheese, or the terrible chocolate. It wasn’t until I had a Concord grape a few years ago (after living here for years) that it all made sense. Grape flavor tastes of (these and these only) grapes! It blew my mind, to be honest.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 7:18 AM on December 25, 2024 [3 favorites]

All lovers of grape pie should plan a pilgrimage to grape-obsessed Naples, New York, in the beautiful grape-growing region of the Finger Lakes. Especially in September for the annual Grape Festval, when fresh grape pies are being cranked out by numerous bakers. But they freeze well and are available that way year round. Heck, they love Concord (and other) grapes there so much, the fire hydrants are painted purple!
posted by JimInSYR at 7:19 AM on December 25, 2024 [4 favorites]

Ephraim Wales Bull, the inventor of the Concord grape, is a classic, possibly canonical, example of sour grapes. The story goes that after the Concord grape became successful, he didn't stop making new varieties of grapes, but because he felt like the Concord had been stolen from him, he didn't introduce the new grapes to the public, and they died with him. Who knows how many wonderful grapes were lost to history because botanical patents didn't exist in those days?

(Actually, I don't know if botanical patents didn't exist in those days. Also, according to this article, the number is "twenty-two thousand seedlings over a period of thirty-seven years, of which he selected twenty-one for introduction." I'm not sure how many of the 22000 were post-Concord, but the legend is that most of them were, and he was very bitter and reclusive about the whole thing.)
posted by surlyben at 7:31 AM on December 25, 2024 [5 favorites]

I get Thomcord (Thompson-Concord hybrids) from my SF Bay Area farmers market all through the grape season and they are lovely. Good Concord flavor, still quite delicate, seedless.
posted by graphweaver at 7:45 AM on December 25, 2024 [3 favorites]

I love concord grapes and haven't had them in years. And I do look. So if you're in an area where they're regularly available, yes, you're blessed.

I live in a Midwestern college town. We don't really have "upscale" grocery stores here, just better and worse ones, and produce has been going downhill in general.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 7:48 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

I only had concord grapes well into adulthood when I started getting them from the farmers market - never recall seeing them in a grocery store. What a revelation! I always thought "grape" flavor was just making stuff up. I find wild textures kind of enjoyable to eat, and my husband finds concords tedious, so they're aaaaaall mine when they're in the house.
posted by obfuscation at 8:07 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

I always thought the American “grape” flavor was the canonical example of Cheap Crappy American “Food”, like aerosol cheese, or the terrible chocolate. It wasn’t until I had a Concord grape a few years ago (after living here for years) that it all made sense. Grape flavor tastes of (these and these only) grapes!

There's a similar thing with banana flavoring. The reason. "Banana flavor" is so different from an actual banana is because the flavoring tastes of a specific KIND of banana, the Cavendish. They used to be the go-to variety imported worldwide. But then a disease pit a big dent in the Cavendish banana crops, and the growers switched to a disease-resistant variety called the Gros Michel.

So the bananas you buy are Gros Michels while banana flavor is based on the Cavendish.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:29 AM on December 25, 2024 [5 favorites]

Trader Joes has Thomcord for a few weeks in the fall. So good.
posted by jjj606 at 8:30 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

My great-great grandfather had a Concord grape vine in his backyard that lasted into the mid 1980s, so it was at least 80 years old when it was destroyed (the yard had been let go to ruin by lazy descendants). I remember the grapes when I was a kid. Yep, you had to suck them out and spit out the seeds, but they were the only "grape" flavored grapes I had ever known. In late summer, birds would get alarmingly drunk from the fallen, rotting fruit and flap around on the ground and fly into fences. My mom has photos of that yard from the mid-30s and the grape vine is prominently pictured. They used to make wine out of it. This was in Chicago.
posted by SoberHighland at 8:40 AM on December 25, 2024 [3 favorites]

My great grandmother who I never met (born 1881) made her last batches of homemade wild grape juice in the fall of 1980, and my grandmother slowly opened these jars over the ‘80s. One of my prized childhood memories is the taste. North American grapes are the best grapes. All the varieties Insert Clever Name Here mentioned are amazing, either fresh, juiced, or fermented.
posted by Headfullofair at 8:43 AM on December 25, 2024 [5 favorites]

They're available here in L.A. but not as common as any number of seedless varieties. And why would they be, the seedless varieties are delicious and, well, seedless. I'm guessing the Concord would excel at cooking/jam/etc. But doing so unless you're growing them yourself is kind of an expensive and labor intensive hobby.

A few years back, I got a vine to grow quite healthily in my back yard. Produced lots of wonderful Concords. Unfortunately, the rats liked them more than anybody in the household, and after a few seasons, I dug them out. Just weren't worth the nuisance.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:04 AM on December 25, 2024

My girlfriend has a Concord vine that I know is at least 50 years old and resilient as hell. In the 25 years that I've visited her in the summer, I've often missed grape season by a week or two, and Concord fruiting season is sadly short. But man, are they good. Amazing, actually. She doesn't deserve it, because she hates all grapes.
The vine was originally huge--probably 5" in diameter--when we cut the main stem down to build her a tack shed. It recovered surprisingly fast and grew all over the top and along the side and back of the little building, fruiting even more prolifically. Unfortunately, the tack shed burnt down, and in the reconstruction of the house, the builders destroyed what little remained of the vine. Last year, I walked around to her back yard and be hung if the vine hadn't recovered and was fruiting again! I think the roots were so extensive that because there is an irrigation canal and the grounds are flood irrigated, the vine was able to recover. I slip the tough and bitter skins and avoid the drips. Still amazing.
(She never appreciated the orchard, fruits, and herbs she inherited when she bought the house. Had a white peach tree--the best peaches I've ever tasted! Let it die. Has a black walnut that still produces prolifically--never harvests it. This year I'm going to make sure get some again. A PITA to crack, turns your hands black, but fantastic flavor and good for baking.)
posted by BlueHorse at 9:22 AM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]

I had Concord grapes from an Ontario farmers market once and add it to my list of every version I’ve eaten until now has been a lie list.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:23 AM on December 25, 2024 [3 favorites]

I just eat the seeds!
posted by obfuscation at 9:30 AM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]

Yeah, eat the skins and crunch on the seeds. Not sure what the big deal is there.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:34 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

Now I want a concord grape hand pie, but I doubt such a thing exists.
posted by indexy at 10:53 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

"My great grandmother who I never met (born 1881) made her last batches of homemade wild grape juice in the fall of 1980, and my grandmother slowly opened these jars over the ‘80s. One of my prized childhood memories is the taste."

Ctrl-F "wild" YES! I was fortunate that my mom knew how to make jelly. IDK if you mean "wild" grapes like riverbank - or like wild/naturally occurring Concord, but if the former I 100% concur, it's just so bloody amazing. In the mid 00s my mom was able to make a final batch after she was able to acquire some more of the grapes.

That said, re: Concord, I will say I use less Grape Jelly these days and my go to is raspberry jam. I do like Grape Jelly, especially on french toast (and with maple syrup). But it needs something to complement it, and I usually just use single slice w/jelly jam, not full sandwiches (which Grape Jelly does better on), and I don't eat enough French Toast these days to justify a full jar of concord grape jelly.

It seems like the miracles of shipping and industrial have really ruined so much of our food (Delicious Apples being the biggest known offender; see also: industrial production for size of jalapenos that are bland and stupid, just so packagers can adjust the amount of heat in pickled and jarred products). I am sure this has happened with plenty of other products as well.
posted by symbioid at 11:07 AM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

Yeah, eat the skins and crunch on the seeds. Not sure what the big deal is there.

I like the astringency and texture of Concord skin and seeds, but it does make the grapes taste less sweet and juicy. I wouldn't call it a big deal, but a sweetness maximizer would definitely want to eliminate the seeds and skins.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:12 PM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

I've always loved Concord grapes since I was little and the elderly couple next door kept an arbor. When I moved to North Carolina I discovered muscadine and scuppernong grapes. Anything but the wet sugar balls that are commonly known as "grapes."
posted by rikschell at 1:26 PM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

I grow them here in New England with no fuss. I canned jelly one year but I'm not actually that into jelly (same problem with red currants but they're so gorgeous...)

Maybe some year I'll process them together and can grape currant juice.

In any case, they really are amazing straight off the vine in late summer, I eat tons of them just wandering around the yard and spitting out the seeds.

I also grow Nanking cherries. Evidently I have a real thing for fussy fruit with seeds. I have never gotten a great harvest out of the cherries though. I should work on that. Because then I could have grape currant cherry juice and then sky's the limit for me!
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:42 PM on December 25, 2024

…my mom would buy them and make pie…

Recipe or it didn’t happen!
posted by TedW at 7:12 PM on December 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

good lord, I can't imagine crunching down on grape seeds any more than I could imagine just biting through unpopped popcorn kernels, but maybe you're just built different, Jaws From James Bond Movies
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:39 PM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]

But then a disease pit a big dent in the Cavendish banana crops, and the growers switched to a disease-resistant variety called the Gros Michel.

As Balatro has repeatedly reminded me, you have the varietals backwards. See Panama Disease for the gory details.

There's a similar thing with banana flavoring. The reason. "Banana flavor" is so different from an actual banana is because the flavoring tastes of a specific KIND of banana

Why Don’t Banana Candies Taste Like Real Bananas?

Laffy Taffy may not be a replacement for a real banana, but the histories of the two are more entwined than we may think, and Berenstein proposes that the scientific line between “real” and “fake” banana flavor is blurrier than it seems. And as it happens, “artificial” banana flavoring came to prominence in the U.S. market before actual bananas—about 10 years prior, in fact.

The source blog post for the Science Friday article is definitely worth a read.
posted by zamboni at 3:53 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Now I want a concord grape hand pie, but I doubt such a thing exists.

Recipe 1
Recipe 2
Recipe 3

And if you really want to gild the lily, this dude shares a recipe where you make the concord grape hand pies and then use them as the outside for ice cream sandwiches.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:03 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Yeah, eat the skins and crunch on the seeds. Not sure what the big deal is there.

No big deal other than the skins and seeds being pretty unpalatable. Reminds me of people who eat sunflower seeds, shells and all. I mean, sure, you could. But why on earth would you? It's not like the wide variety of seedless grapes were developed as some conspiracy by Big Grape to deprive you of the Concord's bitter skins and seeds.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:31 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Regarding hand pies. At least one grape-pie purveyor in the town of Naples, NY that I mentioned above sells a hand pie variant (a tart) that I can highly recommend: Cindy's Grape Pies
posted by JimInSYR at 6:18 AM on December 26, 2024

Regarding hand pies. At least one grape-pie purveyor in the town of Naples, NY that I mentioned above sells a hand pie variant, "grape-filled cookies" (a sort of tart) that I can highly recommend: Cindy's Grape Pies
posted by JimInSYR at 6:24 AM on December 26, 2024

We call muscadines "swamp grapes" here and they're my favorite variety aside from the wild Oregon grapes that I find on my friend's heavily forested acre in upstate NY. These and autumn olives (an introduced pest that nonetheless produces delicious sour berries) and wild cherries ("whiskey cherries") make wandering through northeastern forests a lot of fun, if you know what to look for.
posted by 1adam12 at 6:57 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

What are these “wild cherries” all about?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:22 AM on December 26, 2024

Wild cherries are these little wonders right here. They're widely. naturalized in North America, and they have a super intense cherry flavor.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:40 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Grew up with these as the only grape available, and I grew up in a real downmarket area of New England. I am surprised to see that these are considered bougie. Never knew that you were supposed to take the skins off and remove the seeds; I just ate them whole, and the entire inside of my mouth would eventually become irritated. When I try them again I will have to try this skin-peeling/seed-spitting thing you all speak of, and see if that makes a difference.
posted by rednikki at 8:41 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Yeah, eat the skins and crunch on the seeds. Not sure what the big deal is there.

I spit out the seeds. It's not a big deal.

The fact that Americans won't eat delicious fruit because it has skin and seeds but have turned chicken wings into an entire genre of food will never not perplex me. And it makes me despair, because it means worse and less varied fruit in stores for me.

(I do eat the skins though. I don't find them that bitter. More bitter than the anodyne seedless varieties, sure, but not anything like citrus pith. The flesh slides out of the skins really easily if you don't want to eat them, though.)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:08 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

If you are pressed for time, here's the tl:dr.

ಠ_ಠ
posted by Mayor West at 9:08 AM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I work in ag, and the demands of mechanized production and long distance shipping are way bigger reasons that produce sucks than breeding seedless varieties. My workplace has been grinding my gears lately, but I would struggle to replace the joys of sampling from variety trials and eating my very favorite berries / grapes / squashes / melons / kiwis at the ripeness level I prefer. Honeydew can be delicious when it’s not picked too early for shipping, it turns out.

If you have access to U Pick produce, that’s a good way to replicate the experience. Doing a CSA or befriending a farmer at the market is good, too. I find that if I don’t like a particular fruit or vegetable, it was because I was introduced to a crappy version of it, so be open to trying things that you think you don’t like!
posted by momus_window at 11:41 AM on December 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

If you want to try Concord grape wine, the most widely available version is probably Manischewitz.

It's sweetened (very) and used mostly for ritual purposes.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:13 PM on December 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I harvest and press about sixty pounds of riverbank grapes every year. Vitus riparia.
It is a gigantic pain in the ass.

Do not listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. If you choose to harvest them in the early fall you get a far inferior product. If you wait until the leaves have dropped, you get to fight the hornets and wasps for their last food source. I was attacked by a squirrel for picking grapes.

The juice is as sour as a lemon and is loaded with tartaric acid. These are tiny crystals that are, apparently, what cream of tartar is made of? I have no idea, I know that I cannot eat more than thirty of them before my tongue swells up. It is similar to handling fiberglass insulation batting and I wear gloves or they'll get under my fingernails.

You juice the damnable things. Now, this is where the whole process turns into art. I move quickly and simply beat the bejesus out of them in an old cold-press that I built for apples. I don't heat them. I don't sort out the moldy bits. I don't check for bugs. I just don't care. My body is one with the universe.

Then you put all the juice into a big glass jar and let it sit in a cool place overnight. All of the tartaric crystals will precipitate out into the bottom of the jar. This can be seen to happen in very fine wines. Or maybe shitty wines, I can't recall. You will end up with a few inches of tartaric sludge in the bottom and you pour the juice off the top. I do decant through a cheesecloth to remove any bug parts.

Thence you are left with what is, in my estimation, the most delicious liquid that exists on the face of the planet earth. I would walk through fire to drink the stuff. It is unimaginably good. It's very, very strong. Often mixed with water or club soda or some nonsense.

If you allow it to sit for more than a few days you will have wine. Or a bomb. I know exactly two people who very carefully turn this juice into very good wine and it is... I don't have words. It is better than any wine I've ever had and I have had thousands of bottles of wine. I place it into quart-sized swing-top jars and deposit them in the back of the garage refrigerator (Michigan) for a minimum of three years. This results in a kind of vinegar that is unlike anything I have ever tasted anywhere else in my life.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:44 PM on December 27, 2024 [16 favorites]

Mod note: [Cheers, everyone! This thread and Baby_Balrog's grape juice have joined the Schnatkes on the sidebar and Best Of blog.]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:02 AM on December 28, 2024 [2 favorites]

If you want to try Concord grape wine, the most widely available version is probably Manischewitz.

Don’t forget Mogen David!
posted by TedW at 11:34 AM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]

We mostly drink Manischewitz out of nostalgia at this point. It is notoriously hard to make a good wine from Concord grapes. Jefferson spent decades trying and failed. Trail Estates in Ontario, however, seems to have discovered something. Their Supersonic Pet Nat is expensive but a real treat.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:09 PM on December 29, 2024