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Friday December 26, 2008 - Wine Jobs

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History Of Seedless Grapes And Raisins Used In Wine Making

In centuries past, ancient man noticed that grapes hanging on vines lasted for months, and even though seedy, the fruit was sweet to the taste. These grapes dried out in the sun and were called raisins. The raisins could be stored for months to be eaten at a later time, centuries before advanced civilizations learned how to preserve foods artificially by canning and freezing. Other fruit items such as palm tree dates, figs, apricot, prune-plum, pear, and peach could be preserved by sun drying. Today, many additional products can be preserved by vacuum drying, such as strawberry, blueberry, and a host of tropical fruits, such as pineapple, guava, and many other fruits and berries. After many people age, a craving for dried fruit, grapes, and berries intensifies because of the high sugar content (sweetness), and the concentrated flavor.

Basically, all ancient raisins were grown as two types: the regular sized grapes were dried, large in size with large seed, and the raisins that came from Corinth, Greece were called currants (the word is a corruption of the word Corinth). The currants were very small but grew into huge grape clusters on the grapevine, and were extremely sweet with an aromatic, intense flavor. Currants became an international, valuable success, and were sought after, even being grown to be used in trading matters like currency. The word, currency, derived from the word currants.

The mystery remains today about which chemicals in grapes, other than sugar, that are responsible for preserving grapes in the form of raisins or in bottling the liquid aromatic wine, that improves in flavor after being aged for many years. There is a special grape from Hungary called Tokay (Tokaji) that is left on the vine to ripen into raisins. The raisins are pickled and fermented into the famous Tokay wine, that must be aged for many years as an aromatic wine known for its unique and intense flavor. The Tokay wine was named as the wine of Tsars, Kings, and Presidents . Catherine the Great, Tsarina of Russia, stationed Cossack soldiers to guard her treasured cache of Tokay raisin wine. Queen Victoria of England received 972 bottles of Tokay wine on her birthday. King Louis XIV of France pronounced Tokay wine as ?the wine of Kings, the King of wines.? Gourmets agree that Tokay wine should be assigned to a special named category, since the extra step of aging came from the aging of the grape to the raisin, and is bypassed in normal wine producing.

It is difficult to trace the absolute first appearance of raisin culture in ancient history, but it is known that raisins were written about in the ancient Scriptures of the Hebrew Bible. Raisins were actually written about in the Bible as a forbidden fruit, that was prohibited from the diets of a religious cult called the Nazirites. Members of the cult were Nazirites, such as Aaron, brother of Moses, and all his priestly descendants; Samson, the Judge; John the Baptist of the New Testament, and members of another religious cult, the Rechabites. Numbers 6:14 reads that the Nazirites were forbidden to taste fresh wine, ?grape juice or raisins.? These Nazirites were not allowed to eat anything from the grapevine, even forbidding the eating of grape skins and grape seeds, and were not even permitted to grow grape vines or to own vineyards. Judges 13:13 prohibited the mother of Samson from allowing her son to eat ?raisins or drink any wine.?

Even though the Scriptures make no direct prohibition to John the Baptist to abstain from eating raisins, the edict is implicit in acknowledging that John the Baptist was a Nazirite, which was referred to by Jesus in Matthew 11:18 and Luke 5:33.

King David was given ?one hundred raisin cakes and 200 fig cakes.? 1 Samuel 25:18, after having nothing to eat or drink for three days and nights. David was given ?part of a fig cake, two clusters of raisins, and some water? 1 Samuel 30:12. After leaving Jerusalem, King David's donkeys were loaded with one hundred clusters of raisins, one hundred bunches of grapes, and a small barrel of wine. At the feast for King David, donkeys brought vast supplies of ?fig cakes, raisins, wine? etc for the celebration. 1 Chronicles 12:40

Historically, it is recorded that the Greeks were growing grapes (currants) in Corinth, and the culture of grapes and raisins flourished with the rise of the Roman Empire followed by the Medieval Age of the Catholic church and the Crusades that renewed and redistributed the trade of grapes and raisins. Raisins were used as a reserve food on the ships of Christopher Columbus, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, in 1492. Spanish Missions later grew grapes and produced raisins in the New World, most importantly in California, and were the most important commercial farmers to plant and grow grapevines for raisin production.

Perhaps the most important improvement in raisin marketing came from the vineyard of William Thompson, who renamed the grape he imported as the white ?Thompson Seedless? grape, that was, and is, the most significant cultivar in modern grape marketing, and customer demand for a seedless raisin. Many other new seedless grapes have been recently hybridized as candidates for seedless raisin to plant and grow. The pleasure of eating sweet, aromatic raisins is reduced, if the person is required to spit out hard, bitter tasting seed, therefore, seedless raisins dominate the market and the fresh grape fruit market. Recent advances in applications of plant growth hormones assure the total seedless condition of grapes and raisins, because the seed inside the embryonic grape are completely aborted by spraying the flowers of the grapes with gibberillic acid (gibberillin) and the grapes grow into very sweet, big and juicy, and evolve into excellent raisins.

New grape varieties that are useful for raisins are:

Black Beauty seedless grape, the only black seedless grape with a taste like concord grapes.

Flame seedless grape, the second most popular seedless grape, compared to Thompson's seedless, deep red in color, round with a pleasant crunch and a sweet-tart taste balance.

Tokay seedless grape, also called Tokay flame seedless, sweeter version of Flame seedless, orange-red with a crisp texture.

Perlette seedless grape, the frosty-white bloom is atop a crisp green skin, the hardiest seedless grape that ripens earlier than other varieties.

Ruby Seedless grape, deep red skin, juicy and oval shaped.

Thompson's seedless grape, white, crisp, juicy and sweet.

Other seedless grapes are Autumn Royal seedless grape, Canadice Seedless grape, Concord seedless grape, Crimson seedless grape, Princess seedless grape, and Summer Royal seedless grape

About the Author:

Patrick A. Malcolm, owner of TyTy Nursery, has an M.S. degree in Biochemistry and has cultivated grape vines for over three decades.

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History Of Seedless Grapes And Raisins Used In Wine Making

In centuries past, ancient man noticed that grapes hanging on vines lasted for months, and even though seedy, the fruit was sweet to the taste. These ...

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I Love Italian Wine and Food - The Emilia-Romagna Region

Emilia-Romagna stretches from the Ligurian border in northeastern Italy to the Adriatic Sea. As the name indicates, historically it was composed of two regions, Emilia and Romagna. It may be the only region of Italy named for a road, one constructed by the Ancient Romans almost 2200 years ago. It is one of the most prosperous regions of Italy with strong agricultural, industrial, and tourist economic activity. Its total population is about 3.9 million.

Emilia-Romagna produces a very wide variety of pasta, fruits and vegetables, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cheese, and fresh and cured meats. Two of its biggest stars are a cheese, Parmigiano Regianno, and a ham, Prosciutto di Parma. Parmesan cheese as it's known in English, was mentioned by the famous Italian author of the Fourteenth Century, Giovanni Boccaccio. We review it below. Parma ham, as it's known in English, is an uncooked ham that is dry cured for at least ten months. Usually it is served in very thin slices, often as appetizer with melon.

Bologna whose population is about 375,000 is the administrative center of Emilia-Romagna. It is the home of the first university in the Western World, founded in the 11th Century. Bologna is also considered the capital of Italian gastronomy, in spite of its unfortunate association with a low-quality sandwich meat. Another city of interest is Rimini, a resort center on the Adriatic Sea with a population of 135 thousand.

Emilia-Romagna devotes about 178,000 acres to grapevines, it ranks 5th among the 20 Italian regions. Its total annual wine production is about 125 million gallons, giving it a 4th place. About 57% of the wine production is red, leaving 43% for white. The region produces 18 DOC wines. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which may be translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin, presumably a high-quality wine and 1 DOCG white wine, Albana di Romagna. The G in DOCG stands for Garantita, but there is in fact no guarantee that such wines are truly superior. In fact, while this wine was the first white wine to be accorded the DOCG designation in Italy (1987), many feel that Albana di Romagna does not deserve such an award. (I have never tasted this wine, and from the reviews that I've read, I'm in no hurry to taste it.) About 21% of Emilia-Romagna wine carries the DOC or DOCG designation. Emilia-Romagna is home to more than four dozen major and secondary grape varieties, a few more red than white.

Widely grown international white grape varieties include Malvasia and Trebbiano. The best known strictly Italian white varieties are Albana (source of the DOCG wine) and Pignoletto.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the only widely grown international red grape variety. The best known strictly Italian red variety is Bonarda. The Italian red varieties Barbera and Sangiovese are found elsewhere, including California.

Before we reviewing the Emilia-Romagna wine and cheese that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region.
Start with Gelato di Parmigiano, Parmigiano "Ice Cream", which includes heavy cream and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, suggested as an appetizer.
A more traditional dish is Scaloppine di Vitello alla Bolognese, Veal Scaloppine all Bolognese, which also includes Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, as well as other local specialties Prosciutto di Parma and balsamic vinegar.
For dessert (as if the ice cream wasn't a dessert) try Torta Bonissima, a Honey and Nut Pie.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY While we have communicated with well over a thousand Italian wine producers and merchants to help prepare these articles, our policy is clear. All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed
Donini Lamberti Trebbiano-Chardonnay IGT 2005 12% alcohol about $8 (liter)

Everybody has prejudices. I approached this bottle with several of them. It seems to me that a liter of wine is usually too big, accentuating quantity at the expense of quality. Given the economics of the wine industry, I am usually reticent to purchase a bottle for $8, which would be $6 for a regular-sized bottle. And finally while Emilia-Romagna is often known for its red wines, it is not particularly known for its white wines, with an unfortunate exception, the DOCG wine Albana di Romagna, discussed above. And now to the actual wine.

The first time that I drank this wine I found that its taste was one of green apples, dominating everything else but still light on flavor if not unpleasant. It didn't really accompany the food, a breaded chicken cutlet in sweet and sour sauce with potatoes cooked in chicken fat. As the wine aged a bit, (it takes a long time to finish a liter if you don't care to drink very much at a time) it got better instead of worse. I have read that 3.5 million bottles of this type wine are produced yearly. I understand that it is popular in fish restaurants along the Adriatic Sea. I'd love to find out for sure. Final verdict, not bad for the price.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is a cooked, unpressed semi-fat hard cheese made from raw cow's milk. It is encased in a thin, yellow rind. This cheese is finely grained and very flaky. Its taste is delicate and fragrant, and frankly wasted with a wine of this quality.