We will have some local table grapes available this weekend, a local farmer has several varieties growing and the harvest is plentiful this year. Kenny and I are going to try and sell some for him, we like them and think they will be an enhancement to our baskets this year. We will have a limited amount available for sale on the table. Hopefully they will be available for a few weeks depending on the speed of ripening.

Have you ever wondered if the grapes that are used to make wine are different from the grapes that we purchase at the store?  If so, you are not alone. The reason I know with certainty that you are not alone is that I have wondered the same thing! So if you are curious about such things, then here are some of the reasons how wine and table grapes are different:

The biggest difference between the two grape types is the species of grapes. (This is the technical info…) Vitis Vinifera is the species used for winemaking and Vitis Labrusca along with Vitis Rotundifolia are used as table grapes.  That is not to say there are some grapes under Vitis Vinifera that can’t be used as table grapes, but for the most part, grapes found as part of Vitis Vinifera are used for making wine.

The grapes used for making wine have a much thicker skin than those used for table grapes.

In this case the size does matter.  Normally the larger the grape the worse off the winemaker is to produce the wine.  Smaller grapes usually have a higher degree of concentrated flavors.

Wine grapes are found to be much sweeter than ordinary table grapes.  I would have thought the opposite to be true as sweet wines are normally produced by just keeping the grapes on the vines longer (I know other practices are used to make sweeter wines, but usually sweeter wines use grapes kept on the vines longer).  Wine grapes have more sugar than table grapes as the sugars are an important part of the fermentation process that dictates the amount of alcohol found in wine.

 

 

Note:  Information gathered from World and Wine

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