''Vitis labrusca'', the fox grape, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

grapevines ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...

belonging to the ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

in the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

family

Vitaceae The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines (''Vitis'' spp.) and Virginia creeper (''Parthenocissus quinquefolia''). The family name is derived from the ge ...

. The vines are native to eastern North America and are the source of many grape

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 ...

s, 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 ...

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...

, Niagara, and many

hybrid grape Hybrid grapes 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 grap ...

varieties such as Agawam,

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

and Onaka. Among the characteristics of this vine species in contrast to the European wine grape ''

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 ...

'' are its "slip-skin" that allows the skin of the grape

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...

to easily slip off when squeezed, instead of crushing the

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

, and the presence of

tendril In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as '' Cuscuta''. There are many plants that have tend ...

s on every node of the cane. Another contrast with European ''vinifera'' is the characteristic "foxy" musk of ''V. labrusca'', best known to most people through the Concord grape. Jancis Robinson (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to Wine'' (Oxford University Press, third edition 2006, ), pp 19-20 This musk is not related to the mammalian

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, but rather to the strong, earthy aromas characteristic of the grapes that were known by early

European-American settlers During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although Norse colonization of North America, the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizin ...

in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

. The term "foxy" became a sort of catchall for the

wine tasting descriptors The use of wine tasting descriptors allows the taster to qualitatively relate the aromas and flavors that the taster experiences and can be used in assessing the overall quality of wine. Wine writers differentiate wine tasters from casual e ...

used for these American wines that were distinct from the familiar flavors of the European viniferous wines.B. Ramey ''The Great Wine Grapes'' Concord, Catawaba and Delaware entries (no page numbers in book) University of California-Davis, 1977 ASIN B0006CZP4S

History

According to wine historian

Edward Hyams Edward Solomon Hyams (30 September 1910 – 25 November 1975) was a British gardener and horticulturalist, historian, novelist and writer, and anarchist. He is known for his writings as a French scholar and socialist historian, and as a garden ...

and wine expert Jancis Robinson, ''Vitis labrusca'' was probably the species seen by

Leif Ericsson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental Nort ...

growing wild along the coast of

Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...

in the 11th century. There is ample evidence that the ''labrusca'' was growing wild in North America before Europeans arrived. The vine was not officially identified and recorded until

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

and his peers started cataloging American vine species in the mid-18th century. In the 19th century, ''Vitis labrusca'' was among the American vines transported to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

that were carrying the phylloxera louse that caused widespread devastation to the European vineyards planted with ''Vitis vinifera''.Jancis Robinson, ''Vines, Grapes & Wines'' (Mitchell Beazley, 1986, ), pp 8, 18, 228 Also in the 19th century,

Ephraim Bull Ephraim Wales Bull (March 4, 1806 – September 26, 1895) was an American farmer, best known for the creation of the Concord grape. Biography Ephraim Wales Bull was born on March 4, 1806, in Boston, Massachusetts.

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 ...

, cultivated seeds from wild ''labrusca'' vines to create the

Concord grape The Concord grape is a cultivar derived from the grape species '' Vitis labrusca'' (also known as fox grape) that are used as table grapes, wine grapes and juice grapes. They are often used to make grape jelly, grape juice, grape pies, grape-fl ...

which would become an important agricultural crop in the United States.

Vine characteristics

The majority of ''Vitis labrusca''

grape varieties 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 Viti ...

are red, although white varieties such as Niagara and "pink-skinned" varieties such as Catawba have dark colored berries high in phenolic compounds that produced strongly flavored wines. As the berries near harvest and become fully

ripe Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE, French for "European IP Networks") is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. The RIPE community's objective is to ensure that the administrative and technical coor ...

, they separate easily from the

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

(berry stem). If the berry is squeezed gently between two fingers, the thick skin will slip easily off leaving the pulp intact as a ball. This trait gives ''Vitis labrusca'' the name of "slip skin" grapes. Another trait of ''labrusca'' that aids ampelographers in identification of vines and hybrid varieties descended from the species is the large, thick leaves of the vines that have a hairy underside with dense brown or white hairs. Like many other American vine species, ''Vitis labrusca'' has some natural resistance to many grape diseases, including phylloxera. However, its resistance and grafting compatibility is not as high as that of other species, such as ''

Vitis aestivalis ''Vitis aestivalis'', the summer grape, or pigeon grape is a species of grape native to eastern North America from southern Ontario east to Maine, west to Oklahoma, and south to Florida and Texas. It is a vigorous vine, growing to 10 m or more h ...

'', ''

Vitis rupestris ''Vitis rupestris'' is a species of grape native to the United States that is known by many common names including July, Coon, sand, sugar, beach, bush, currant, ingar, rock, and mountain grape. It is used for breeding several French-American hy ...

'' and '' Vitis berlandieri'', and it is not often used for commercial

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...

. It is a robust plant, and in many states can be considered

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

y or invasive.

Wine regions

''Vitis labrusca'' can be found along the eastern seaboard of North America from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

down to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and westward to the

Mississippi river The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. Among

American Viticultural Areas An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know about the ...

(AVA)s that produce wine from ''labrusca'' or hybrids derived from ''labrusca'' include Upper Mississippi Valley, Mississippi Delta,

Ohio River Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

, Southeastern New England,

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 ...

as well as several AVAs in the states of New York,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

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 ...

.Winkler A J, Cook J A, Kliere W M and Lider L A, ''General Viticulture'' (University of California Press, 2nd edition 1974, ), pp 17-20, 59, 166-167 In the Canadian Province of Ontario, the use of ''Vitis labrusca'' varieties is not permitted by the VQA regulatory and

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical boun ...

system, except for

Vidal Vidal (, , , ) is a Catalan, Aragonese, and possibly also Romansh surname, which also appears in French, Italian, Portuguese and English, and as a given name. Vidal may refer to: Surname * Maurice Vidal Portman (1850–1935), a British doct ...

, a hybrid grape varietal. Unlike ''vinifera'', hybrids and ''Vitis labrusca'' varieties can better withstand the severe continental conditions of eastern North America with severely cold winters and hot, humid summers. (However, ''labrusca'' doesn't do quite as well as varieties like ''

Vitis rotundifolia ''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 extensively ...

'' in the humidity of southeastern US). In fact, in areas of the United States where ''vinifera'' does flourish in the west, the conditions during the growing season are often too arid for ''labrusca'' vines.

"Foxy" musk

According to

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

expert

A. J. Winkler Albert Julius Winkler (4 March 1894, in The Grove, Texas – 29 August 1989, in Woodland, California) was an American professor of viticulture and one of its leading authorities. His name is famous for the Winkler index, developed with Maynard Am ...

, outside of the ''vinifera'' Muscat family of grapes, ''Vitis labrusca'' varieties have the most pronounced aromas among wine grape varieties. The description of "foxy", not derived from the animal, serves as a catch-all term to describe the unique, earthy and sweet muskiness that can be perceived in fresh Concord grapes as well as

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 ...

made from Concord and other ''labrusca'' varieties like Niagara. In the 1920s, scientists were able to isolate the

aroma compound An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavoring, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficiently v ...

responsible for the "foxy" musk as

methyl anthranilate Methyl anthranilate, also known as MA, methyl 2-aminobenzoate, or carbomethoxyaniline, is an ester of anthranilic acid. Its chemical formula is C8H9NO2. It has a strong and fruity grape smell, and one of its key uses is as a flavoring agent. Chem ...

References

External links