Early tiny black wine grapes

Discussion in 'Grapes and Grape Vines' started by Joan L NW, Feb 6, 2021.

  1. Joan L NW

    Joan L NW Member

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    When we bought our house in New Westminster 12 years ago, there were two grapevines in the back yard; one had a gewurtstraminer tag on it, but the other vine had no identification; the previous owner told us they were "wine grapes, no good for eating". The vine in question is very prolific, with lots of bunches of small, sweet, early black grapes with tough skins and a lot of rather big seeds. It ripened in mid-August last year, almost a month before my gewurtz, and it made really nice jelly. The juice was really dark, almost black, far deeper in color than the gewurtz.

    The description of cabernet franc (early, prolific, uneven ripening) fits, but the leaves are not quite right. The leaves look a bit like malbec, but the skins are too tough. The leaves look a great deal like pinot noir, but the shape of the bunch and the color don't look quite right. the leaves are almost identical to black corinth, but there are most definitely a lot of seeds. Can anyone help? Thanks.
     

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    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
  2. Tyrlych

    Tyrlych Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Baco may be?
     
  3. Joan L NW

    Joan L NW Member

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    Thanks! I think you just might be right, I googled an image of Baco Noir, and the leaves look very similar, plus the ripening fruit looks like a dead ringer. I wonder if it might be Marechel Foch though? The leaves look very similar and the berries are extremely small.
     
  4. Joan L NW

    Joan L NW Member

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    I can't see any baco noir grape vines for sale in the Vancouver area, and I see that Garden Works sells Marechel Foch, and Garden Works is where the previous owner bought the gewurztraminer vine, so this is starting to make sense.

    Murphy's law prevails, I only came across a likely suspect after giving in and asking for help! I do appreciate your input though!
     
  5. Tyrlych

    Tyrlych Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    You may try to estimate which year this grape vine was planted and than ask Garden Works what they could sell that time.
     
  6. Joan L NW

    Joan L NW Member

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    good idea! The house was built in 1998 and our neighbor who we share that fence with said that the previous owner of our property attached a trellis to the fence a few years later (bad idea, there is no evidence that they ever pruned either of the vines, and the trellis that my son and I built a couple of years ago is freestanding to improve airflow and to keep it away from our expensive new fence). I am quite confident that it was planted some time between 2000 and 2005. It will be interesting when I call to see if they think I'm crazy or what!
     
  7. McP82

    McP82 New Member

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    That's definitely Baco Noir, one of my colleagues had brought some seeds back from a trip to the US and planted some home, it was unlike anything I had ever tasted. I should try to see if one can get some in Europe, as I haven't talked to that colleague in ages...
     
  8. Sulev

    Sulev Contributor

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