A strange grape that grape: Frankenstein wine

In WINELIFE 71, Huib started a short series on Vitis vinifera, the grape to which the wine drinker owes so much. This edition is about its oh-so-important prosthesis. Excuse me, does a grape have a prosthesis? It is probably more correct to speak of a graft. Either way, most vines have to make do with a complete lower body that is not their own. - TEXT HUIB EDIXHOVEN | IMAGE PEXELS.COM

A strange grape that grape: part 3 Frankenstein wine

That our much-loved wine grape Vitis vinifera has to make do with a transplanted lower body is the result of an infamous event. A piece of history that almost led to us having to make do without wine as we know it today. An indigestible thought! What happened?

Vinland

To understand this, we take a giant leap in time and space: the era of the Normans. This rough gang of chaps, led by Leif Eriksson, managed to reach America on their longships as early as the year 1000. Apparently, they encountered so many wild grapes that they christened the newly discovered area Vinland - in Old Norse literally wine country. According to ancient Norse legends, the wine they made here was of the highest quality. But how this wine was made and whether it would be recognisable to us as wine is the question. Given the climate, the local grape (see below) and what Norsemen were used to drinking, it might well have been an innovative berry-wild grape-honey brew.

Liquid distraction

It then took until the early 17th century before the east coast of what is now the United States was seriously colonised by Europeans from more southern countries. The men and women who set foot there could use some liquid distraction from time to time, and wine was also much needed for Catholic mass and medicinal purposes. For this reason, it was common for settlers to actually always plant vineyards immediately upon settlement. But, in North America, therefore, wild grapes grew profusely everywhere. Did our ancestors fall head over heels, or better, into wine?

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