California Wine Making Grapes - Fresh wine grapes for home wine making

Fresh wine grapes straight from California.

LAST ORDER DATE: SEPT. 7, 2008. EXPECTED DELIVERY: MID to LATE SEPTEMBER - PICK UP ONLY! NO DELIVERY! NO CANCELLATIONS. NO REFUNDS. YOU WILL HAVE ABOUT 7 DAYS NOTICE BEFORE DELIVERY AND PICKUP SHOULD BE DONE WITHIN 2 DAYS AFTER DELIVERY. GRAPES ARE TRANSPORTED IN REFRIGERATED TRAILERS BUT WHEN OFF LOADED ARE STORED AT ROOM TEMPERATURE.

A good blending grape. One of the few red grape varieties that has red pulp as well a red skin. Makes intense, dark purplish wines that may be rather neutral in flavor and low in acid. Used to add color to short term wines. Alicante Bouschet is a wine grape variety that has been widely cultivated since 1866. It is a cross of Grenache with Petit Bouschet (itself a cross of the very old variety Teinturier du Cher and Aramon). Alicante is a teinturier, a grape with red flesh. It is the only teinturier grape that belongs to the Vitis vinifera family. Its deep color makes it useful for blending with light red wine. It was planted heavily during Prohibition in California for export to the East Coast. Its thick skin made it resistant to rot during the transportation process. The intense red color was also helpful for stretching the wine during prohibition, as it could be diluted without detracting from the appearance. At the turn of the 21st century, Alicante Bouschet was the 12th most planted red wine grape in France with sizable plantings in the Languedoc, Provence and Cognac regions.

Cabernet Sauvignon wines are made from these grapes - on the vine they are red, small, and tough. The wines tend to taste like blackberries and cedar. Bordeaux uses the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, usually mixed in with Merlot. These grapes are also grown widely in California and Australia. The grape contains a lot of tannin, which leads to a good red wine when properly aged. Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon became internationally recognized through its prominence in Bordeaux wines where it is often blended with Merlot and Cabernet franc. From France, the grape spread across Europe and to the New World where it found new homes in places like California's Napa Valley, Australia's Coonawarra region and Chile's Maipo Valley. For most of the 20th century, it was the world's most widely planted premium red wine grape until it was surpassed by Merlot in the 1990s. Despite its prominence in the industry, the grape is a relatively new variety, the product of a chance crossing between Cabernet franc and Sauvignon blanc during the 17th century in southwestern France. Its popularity is often attributed to its ease of cultivation - the grapes have thick skins and the vines are hardy and resistant to rot and frost - and to its consistent presentation of structure and flavors which express the typical character ("typicity") of the variety. Familiarity and ease of pronunciation have helped to sell Cabernet Sauvignon wines to consumers, even when from unfamiliar wine regions. Its widespread popularity has also contributed to criticism of the grape as a "colonizer" that takes over wine regions at the expense of native grape varieties.

Grenache is most often used for rose wine, and is widely planted in France, Spain and California. It is the second most planted grape in the world. Wines made with grenache tend to be sweet and fruity, with little tannin. "Grenache" refers to Grenache Noir, the red variety, but there is also a Grenache Blanc. Grenache (pronounced gren-ash) (in Spanish, Garnacha, in Catalan, Garnatxa) is probably the most widely planted variety of red wine grape in the world. It ripens late, so needs hot, dry conditions such as those found in Spain and in the south of France. It is generally spicy, berry-flavored and soft on the palate with a relatively high alcohol content, but it needs careful control of yields for best results. It tends to lack acid, tannin and color, and is usually blended with other varieties such as Syrah, Carignan and Cinsaut. Grenache is the dominant variety in most Southern Rhône wines, especially in Châteauneuf-du-Pape where it is typically over 80% of the blend. In Australia it is typically blended in "GSM" blends with Syrah and Mourvèdre. Grenache is also used to make rosé wines in France and Spain, notably those of the Tavel district in the Côtes du Rhône. And the high sugar levels of Grenache have led to extensive use in fortified wines, including the red vins doux naturels of Roussillon such as Banyuls, and as the basis of most Australian 'port'.

This is an early ripening grape, with gentle flavors of cherry, honey, and sometimes mint. It has less tannin than some of its red cousins. Merlot wine is a major blending component of most Bordeaux wines. It's grown in France, Italy, Australia, and in the states - California, Washington, and Long Island, NY. Merlot ('MERL-oh' in British English, mer-LOH in American English and standard French) is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot an ideal grape to blend with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon. This flexibility has helped to make it one of the most popular red wine varietal's in the United States and Chile.

This is a very grapey-tasting grape that doesn't ripen easily. There are various varieties of Muscat - Muscat Blanc, Moscato (Italy), Muscat of Alexandria, and Muscadel. Moscato is the grape used for Asti Spumanti, the sparkling wine from Italy. The muscat family of grapes of the species Vitis vinifera is widely grown for wine, raisins and table grapes. Their color ranges from white to near black. Muscat almost always has a pronounced sweet floral aroma. Muscat grapes are grown around the world in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Israel, France, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Australia, California, Hungary, Canada, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and other places. The breadth and number of varieties of muscat suggest that it is perhaps the oldest domesticated grape variety, and there are theories that most families within the Vitis vinifera grape family are descended from the Muscat family.

This is a dark, tannic, fruity grape. It sometimes has smoky or chocolaty tones to it. It should not be confused with Sirah/Shiraz grape, which is a completely different grape. It is popular in California where it often goes into "jug wines". Durif is a variety of red wine grape primarily grown in California, Australia, France, and Israel. Recently, wineries located in Washington State's Yakima Valley, Maryland, Arizona, West Virginia, Chile, Mexico's Baja Peninsula, and Ontario's Niagara Peninsula have also produced wines from Durif grapes. It is the main grape known in the US and Israel as Petite Sirah with over 90% of the California plantings labeled "Petite Sirah" being Durif grapes; the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms recognizes "Durif" and "Petite Sirah" as interchangeable synonyms referring to the same grape. It produces tannic wines with a spicy, plummy flavor. The grape originated as a cross of Syrah pollen germinating a Peloursin plant. On some occasions, Peloursin and Syrah vines may be called Petite Sirah, usually because the varieties are extremely difficult to distinguish in old age.

Flavoring other wines or eating. Rarely used for wine on it's own. The sultana (also called the sultanina or sultani) is a type of white, seedless grape of Turkish or Iranian origin. It is also the name given to the raisin made from it; such sultana raisins are often called simply sultanas or sultanis. These are typically larger than the currants made from Zante grapes, but smaller than "normal" raisins. Sultana raisins have a delicate and unique flavor and are especially noted for their sweetness and golden color. The sultana raisin was traditionally imported to the English-speaking world from the Ottoman Empire, hence the name sultana, from the feminine form of sultan. Turkey and Australia are major producers. The sultana grape is cultivated in the United States under the name Thompson Seedless, named after William Thompson, a viticulturist who was an early grower in California and is sometimes credited with the variety's introduction. According to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, the two names are synonymous. Virtually all of California raisin production (approximately 97% in 2000) and roughly one-third of California's total grape area is of this variety, making it the single most widely-planted variety. Not all speakers of English in Anglo America make clear distinctions between different types of dried grapes (raisins, sultanas, currants), and golden-colored raisins made from other grape varieties may be marketed as sultanas. In addition, virtually all California raisins are produced from the Thompson Seedless grape, even those which, because of different drying processes, are not golden like the traditional sultana raisin. The term sultana is not commonly used to refer to any type of raisin in American English; as most American raisins are from sultana grapes, they are called simply raisins or golden raisins, according to color. The latter, which at least in color resemble the traditional sultana raisin, are artificially dried and sulfured, in distinction to "natural" raisins. All non-organic sultana grapes in California and elsewhere are treated with the plant hormone gibberellin. As well as serving as a snack food without further processing, sultana raisins are used in a variety of dishes and baking, such as in scones, often prepared by soaking in water, fruit juice, or alcohol. The sultana grape is even used to make white wine, in which capacity it is known for its 'sweet blandness'.

Most Zinfandel grapes are grown in California, although they are thought to have originated in Southern Italy. The wines can be fruity or spicy, depending on age. The Zinfandel grape makes both Red Zinfandel (if the skins are left on) and White Zinfandel (if the skins are removed). Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California wine vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the 'heel' of Italy (Puglia). It is typically made into a robust red wine, but in the USA a semi-sweet rosé (blush-style) wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine. Zinfandel has such high sugar levels that it was originally grown for table grapes in the USA, and this sugar can be fermented into high levels of alcohol, sometimes 15% or more. The taste of the red wine depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas such as the Napa Valley, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas such as Sonoma County, and in wines made from the earlier-ripening Primitivo clone.

Fresh California Wine Making Grapes