By Joseph Temple

Today Alicante Bouschet, a French hybrid originally designed to darken up poorly colored red wines is nearing extinction. In the United States, this teinturier grape is grown mostly in California’s Central Valley as an extender in jug wines.  Pulpy and sugary, novelist Idwal Jones declared it to be so deplorable that “it ranks somewhat below the gooseberry” while wine critic Frank Schoonmaker said it had “no place in any respectable vineyard and should be eliminated.”

And yet despite all its numerous flaws, would you believe that Alicante Bouschet was at one time the most popular wine grape in America???

To understand how it became so popular, one needs to travel back in time nearly a century ago to the age of Prohibition. With passage of the Volstead Act in 1919, the production, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors became the law of the land. However, there was an important loophole that thousands of citizens gladly took advantage of. Besides never properly defining what constituted “intoxicating liquors,” the act allowed individuals to produce “non-intoxicating cider and fruit juices exclusively for use in his home.” With this legal ambiguity, amateur winemakers sprouted up all across the United States seemingly overnight.  What they needed were some grapes to ferment.

Although Zinfandel was the largest grape in California in terms of vineyard acreage, its skin couldn’t withstand the long and bumpy freight train ride to the lucrative east-coast markets of New York, Boston and Philadelphia for home use. On the other hand, Alicante Bouschet, a Vitis vinifera grape first conceived in southern France during the 1860s by crossing Grenache and Petit Bouschet had a hard and thick skin that easily made it across the country. Of course, this important selling point played a big role in causing vineyard land in the Golden State to jump from $100 an acre in 1919 to $500 a year later as home winemaking shot up by 50 percent during Prohibition.

Another key advantage was the abnormal amount of juice contained in Alicante Bouschet. Unlike other grapes, you could press Alicante two and sometimes three times to yield twice the amount of fermentable juice. And notwithstanding its bland and leathery taste, the red flesh added much needed color to unskillful and shoddy winemakers working on their latest vintage.  According to historian Daniel Okrent in his book Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, “On the standard scale used to measure color in grapes, anything that scored over 150 had ‘more than three times the color usually necessary for wine or juice.’ Zinfandel scored a pale 38, cabernet sauvignon a respectable 86. Alicante weighed in at a bruising 204.”  All of a sudden, thin and watery wines made in someone’s basement had the appearance of a standard red.

From 18,000 acres of Alicante Bouschet plantings in 1919, that figure grew to 39,000 acres by 1932 as a growing frenzy took hold—right up until the repeal of Prohibition. With decent grapes being made by professional winemakers again, Alicante was relegated to the dustbin of history; by 1997 a mere 1,600 acres in the Central Valley were dedicated to this grape. Prohibition’s great grape had run its course, being remembered as a grape that gave many thirsty Americans of the 1920s a wine that they probably care not to remember.

Sources:

Acitelli, Tom. American Wine: A Coming-of-Age Story. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015.
MacNeil, Karen. The Wine Bible. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 2000.
Okrent, Daniel. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2011.
Pinney, Thomas. A History of Wine in America from the Beginnings to Prohibition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
Sosnowski, Vivienne. When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America’s Wine Country. Basingstroke: Macmillan, 2009.

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Question: What is this I hear about a blue wine?

Answer: Yes blue wine is a relatively new fashion fad. Not really something to consider IMHO unless you are looking for a cocktail to match your blue sartorial splendor or a unique pairing for a dinner course of roasted blue grouse with a blueberry sauce! It started a few years ago in Spain with Gik using the pigments from grape skins with natural dye from the woad plant (a member of the cabbage family originally used for blue dye indigo). This year Vindigo has a Chardonnay labelled Vin Bleu De Mediterranee and Saraceni has Italian Blumond bubbles. I haven’t tried either one but advised they are rather sweet.

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By Joseph Temple

As summer comes to an end, we all try to fit in one last great weekend adventure. And what better way to say goodbye to those hot summer days and hello to cooler autumn nights that an outdoor celebration. Whether you have one last beach party cookout or go camping in the woods, here are some classic and a few new ideas to feed the crowd!

1. Cowboy classic chill. You can also try a vegetarian stew (don’t forget to pre-prep) or baked beans.
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2. Whether you call then flapjacks, hot cakes, or pancakes, who wouldn’t love waking up to these for breakfast?
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3. Kids love marshmallows and chocolate, but adding granola and dried fruit to you banana boats will give them a more sophisticated flare.
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4. Baked apples are made even better with a simple oat crumble perfect for anytime.
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5. For a new twist on a fun snack, bake muffin batter in orange halves after eating the refreshing fruit inside. It’s a great way to unwind after a long hike.
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6. Hot dogs and campfires go hand in hand. Why not try some sausages for something a little bit different?
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7. Nothing says camping like a good old fashioned eggs and taters breakfast!
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8. One word: S’mores!
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9. Feeling like you really want to live off the land, go fishing! It won’t get fresher than this!
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Question: Is it OK to pick the grape crop while it is raining?

Answer: As we approach Fall harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere this question always comes up. Grapes seem to be ripening forever earlier with Champagne & Alsace yesterday starting already their Vendange 2018. There usually is less chance of rain when picking in August than in September/October. Generally for better quality you want to avoid picking in the rain which tends to swell the grapes up diluting the juice inside with even the possibility of cracks or splits developing resulting in mold. Sometimes it is necessary to do so particularly if there is a forecast for stronger storms with heavy rains continuing. This year there are major wildfires near several wine growing regions – especially in the B.C. Okanagan Valley. Some growers are hoping for a little rain just before or even during harvest to wash away the worst of the smoke taint presently sitting on the surface of the grape skins. May be OK to pick in the rain but usually it is not ideal.

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By Joseph Temple

Next year the International Wine and Food Society will embark on a luxury cruise along the Douro River to sample some of Portugal’s best wines!  Sailing through one of Europe’s best kept secrets, IW&FS members will visit the city of Porto and the Douro Valley, home of both port wine and the world’s very first appellation – an appellation created under unique circumstances in the late 18^th century as a result of a power struggle between Britain and Portugal over vino-supremacy.

The story dates back to the Anglo-French War which began in 1702 as part of the War of Spanish Succession. With champagne and claret no longer available to British wine connoisseurs, an alternative was desperately needed. Moving quickly, they soon found it on Portuguese soil as English merchants arrived at Oporto, shipping in bulk a red table wine from the Douro Valley back to London. And with the addition of brandy, this fortified wine, known as port, suddenly became all the rage across England.

After the signing of the Methuen Treaty in 1703 which allowed port to be brought in at low levels of duty, imports skyrocketed to 116,000 hectolitres annually—the equivalent of 15 million standard bottles by 1728.  However, British influence in the Douro was tense to say the least. “Such was England’s control over Portugal during the first half of the seventeenth century that, at times, it was treated like a colony,” according to author Richard Mayson in his book Port and the Douro.

With demand exceeding supply, growers also started cutting corners as overproduction spiraled out of control. Examples were the addition of spices such as cinnamon and ginger to enhance the flavor, using elderberry juice for color, putting more sugar and alcohol into the wine for sweetness, and finally, importing Spanish wines to make up for a dwindling number of grapes. Not surprisingly, as quality diminished, exports plummeted to 54,000 hectolitres by 1756.  Likewise, the price of a pipe of port went from 60 escudos in 1700 to just 6.3 by 1750.

Realizing that it was becoming a buyer’s market, British merchants formed an association to control the price of port, paying growers next to nothing and on top of that, making them wait until the wine had been sold back in London until they received payment. With the animosity reaching a fever pitch, those in the Douro took their complaints directly to an autocratic leader, the Marquis of Pombal, who served as the Portuguese equivalent of a Prime Minister.

Using a recent earthquake as a pretext, in 1756, he took up their cause by forming the Real Companhia das Vinhas do Alto Douro, also known as the Douro Wine Company. A state monopoly, this company fixed the price of port from 25 to 30 escudos and had far-reaching powers as to what taverns in Oporto would be allowed to serve port. To maintain quality, rules were created that forbid the addition of certain substances to enhance the wine’s flavor as well as ripping out all elderberry bushes just in case anyone was tempted. Additionally, a commission was established that drew up boundary lines around the Douro region, creating the first wine appellation in history.

To the delight of Portuguese growers, no British shipper was allowed to serve on the company’s board of directors. But even domestically, there were issues as tavern owners protested the increase costs of port, leading to a bloody riot one year after the company was created. By 1770 though, the situation stabilized as approximately 160-180,000 hectolitres of port was being imported into England on an annual basis.

As the International Wine and Food Society tours this historic region next year, they will be visiting a region knee deep in a rich history where an international skirmish took place, pitting a nationalist uprising against foreign influence. And to think – it was all over a wine most of us today have with our dessert!

Sources:

Clarke, Oz. The History of Wine in 100 Bottles: From Bacchus to Bordeaux and Beyond. London: Pavilion Books, 2015.
Mayson, Richard. Port and the Douro. Oxford: Infinite Ideas, 2016.
Phillips, Rod. Alcohol: A History. Chapel Hill: UNC Books, 2014.
Robinson, Jancis. The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

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