Grapes

A grape is the fruit that grows on the woody vines of the family Vitaceae. Grapes grow in clusters of 6 to 300, and can be black, blue, golden, green, purple, red, pink, brown, peach or white. They can be eaten raw or used for making jam, grape juice, jelly, wine and grape seed oil. Cultivation of grapevines occurs in vineyards, and is called viticulture. One who studies and practices growing grapes for wine is called a viticulturalist. There are many varieties of grapevines; most are cultivars of V. vinifera.

Raisins are the dried fruit of the grapevine, and the name actually comes from the French word for "grape". Wild grapevines are often considered a nuisance weed, as they cover other plants with their usually rather aggressive growth.

The leaves of the grape vine itself are considered edible and are used in the production of dolmades.

Grapevines are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species - see list of Lepidoptera which feed on grapevines.

Hybrid grapes also exist, and these are primarily crosses between V. vinifera and one or more varieties of V. labrusca, V. riparia or V. aestivalis. Hybrids tend to be less susceptible to frost and disease (notably phylloxera), but wine from some hybrids may have a little of the characteristic "foxy" odor of labrusca.

The sea grape Coccoloba uvifera is actually a member of the Buckwheat family Polygonaceae and is native to the lands of the Caribbean Sea.

According to the "Food and Agriculture Organization" (FAO), 75,866 square kilometres of the world is dedicated to grapes. Approximately 71% of world grape production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit, and 2% as dried fruit. A portion of grape production goes to producing grape juice to be used as a sweetener for fruits canned "with no added sugar" and "100% natural". The area dedicated to vineyards is increasing by about 2% per year.

Comparing diets among western countries, researchers have discovered that although the French tend to eat higher levels of animal fat, surprisingly the incidence of heart disease remains low in France.[1] This phenomenon has been named the French Paradox. Many scientists now believe the reason is the greater consumption of red wine in France. Something in the grape helps to lower cholesterol levels in the body and thus slows the build up of deposits in the arteries. Compounds such as resveratrol (a polyphenol antioxidant) have been discovered in grapes and these have been positively linked to fighting cancer, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease and other ailments. Doctors do not recommend excessive consumption of red wine, but three or four glasses a week is beneficial and encouraged.

Red or not, grapes of all colors offer comparable benefits. Red wine offers health benefits not found in white wine, because many of the beneficial compounds are found in the skins of the grapes, and only red wine is fermented with the skins.

Raisins, Currants, and Sultanas

A raisin is any dried grape. A currant is a dried Zante grape, the name being a corruption of the French raisin de Corinthe (Corinth grape). A sultana was originally a raisin made from a specific type of grape of Turkish origin, but the word is now applied to raisins made from common North American grapes and chemically treated to resemble the traditional sultana.

Resveratrol

Resveratrol is produced by several plants, apparently for its antifungal properties. It is found in widely varying amounts in grapes, primarily the skins and seeds. This is particularly true for muscadine grapes, whose skin and seeds have about one hundred times the concentration as the pulp. The amount found in grape skins also varies with the grape cultivar, its geographic origin, and exposure to fungal infection. The amount of fermentation time a wine spends in contact with grape skins is an important determinant of its resveratrol content.

Fresh grape skin contains about 50 to 100 micrograms of resveratrol per gram. Ordinary non-muscadine red wine contains between 0.2 and 5.8 mg/L, depending on the grape variety, while white wine has much less - the reason being that red wine is fermented with the skins, allowing the wine to absorb the resveratrol, whereas white wine is fermented after the skin has been removed. Wines produced from muscadine grapes, however, both red and white, may contain more than 40 mg/L.

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California Association of winegrape Growers