Today while working in the garden I was contemplating the various garden topics that I had been considering for the next Garden Gossip column. Nothing seemed to be standing out and I was starting to worry a little as I was filling a bushel basket with clusters of plump purple grapes. Moving between the various grape vines in the garden it came to me that we hadn’t yet tackled the topic of growing grapes in a northern climate. While most people tend to think of grapes as a more delicate, warm-weather type of a plant, the reality is that grapes can be grown quite successfully even in our northern region. With a little care given to varietal selection as well as planting location you can soon find yourself with more grapes than you’ll know what to do with.
While the idea of grape cultivation may be new to a lot of northern growers, viticulture in general is one of the oldest agricultural undertakings on the planet. Grape domestication can be traced back at least 8,000 years. This early cultivation occurred around the areas of the Black and Caspian Seas. Grape culture spread rapidly to Egypt, Phoenicia and Greece. From there grapes were introduced across most of Europe and by the early 1800s, old world grapes (Vitis vinifera) were being planted as a commercial crop in North America. The New World grapes that were native to North America were considered to be of inferior quality and not worthy of wine making. The yeast responsible for quality grape wines apparently originated naturally on the skins of the first Old World grapes and has evolved alongside the grapes over the centuries. The original discovery of this yeast and its affect on grape juice quickly gave rise to humanity’s love affair with wine.
Fortunately, growing grapes in the home garden is a much easier process now than it was for the first European settlers who were trying to bring, and grow, cuttings of familiar grapes from their homelands. There is a naturally occurring bacterium in North American soil that can be deadly to some old world grape vines. Fortunately, it was soon discovered that those cuttings could be grafted onto hardy North American rootstock and the resultant vines quickly adapted. While this adaptation worked well in warmer areas, the Vitis vinifera cuttings were not able to withstand the bitter cold North American winters that were common over much of the New World. Patient breeding of native grape species resulted in several new and interesting winter-hardy varieties. Concord grapes, for one, arose from this breeding. Not only did Vitis vinifera vines come under attack in their new home, an aphid from North America found its way to Europe where it infested the roots of the vines in massive numbers and began killing them. The same practice of grafting selected cultivars onto hardy rootstock is also credited with helping save many European vineyards.
The reason for all this effort in bringing grapes to the New World was, of course, for the wine. The Egyptians are credited with being the first culture to ferment grapes on a large and consistent scale. Within Egyptian culture, wine was considered a sacred drink and was used only for religious ceremonies. The concept of social drinking arose with the Greek and Roman empires. Gods such as Bacchus and Dionysus (arguably the same god) rose up in affiliation with wine, celebration and just a little debauchery. By the early 1700s Spanish settlers were introducing grapes to the very hospitable climate of Southern California which has since gone on to become one of the great wine producing regions of the world. The Napa Valley alone has over 200 vineyards and is considered the largest such concentration in the world. Interestingly enough, Australia is also a world power in the field of wine with annual production of 1.4 billion liters of wine.
Grape production is actually so globally massive that it is now considered to be the largest agricultural enterprise on the planet. Currently, production of grapes on this planet is between 70 and 80 million tons every year. While we are never going to see production on anything more than a modest scale here in the north, we are still quite capable of meeting a fair amount of our own needs right in the home garden. Some grapes are better suited to wine making. Others have found their niche in the jam, jelly and juice industry. Yet others have been developed with such a gentle sweetness that they are ideal for eating out of hand. Knowing what you hope to do with your grape crop is the first step in deciding just what varieties you should be growing. Join us again next week and we’ll take a little more in-depth look at what you need to do to successfully grow grapes right here at home.
