Varietal: Red Native American Grapes

Some people have called Zinfandel “America’s grape,” others say it should be Concord. Chik Brenneman is here to make the case for the first true North American wine grape variety: Catawba.

The grape of North America, Concord has come to dominate the grape juice and jelly markets, but making a solid wine with it can require a little more care than most vinifera grapes. Chik Brenneman digs deep to come up with a solid game plan to making a worthy wine from this grape variety.

By far, the most prolific wild grape in Texas is the widely distributed Vitis mustangensis, or Mustang grape. It was historically the major wine grape of early settlers and remains a dominant

Muscadine is a grape variety from the South that is used in many culinary recipes, but also makes a fine wine.

Botanists tell us that grapes are members of the genus Vitis, and the well-known European grape varieties are members of the species vinifera. (In case you’ve forgotten, a species is one rung lower in