Grape Guide
Concord
RedConcord is a dark-skinned American hybrid, selected from a chance seedling in Massachusetts in the 1840s, that is grown far more for juice and jelly than for wine. Its wines are opaque purple and carry the musky, candied "foxy" aroma of Vitis labrusca, which has kept the variety largely within eastern North America.
Key characteristics
- Complex Vitis labrusca x Vitis vinifera hybrid, with labrusca the dominant ancestor
- Arose as a seedling at Concord, Massachusetts; recorded under its name in 1853
- Very cold-hardy, vigorous and high-yielding
- Mid to late ripening, with large berries that can split and ripen unevenly in warm sites
- Very susceptible to eutypa dieback, phomopsis and black rot; sulphur-based sprays can burn the vine
Typical flavors
Major regions
New York (Lake Erie, Finger Lakes) · Washington (Yakima Valley) · Pennsylvania (Lake Erie) · Ohio · Michigan · Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) · Südburgenland (Austria, Uhudler)
Also known as
Concordia (Uhudler · Austria) · Ripatella (Südburgenland · Austria; DNA shows it is the same variety) · Konkordia (Hungary) · Konkordi · Bull's Seedling
Concord is the most widely recognised American-bred grape, a vigorous black-skinned vine whose ancestry is mostly the native fox grape, Vitis labrusca, with a smaller share from European Vitis vinifera. The berries are large and thick-skinned, with deep pigment and juice rich in methyl anthranilate, the compound behind the flavour of American grape jelly, soda and candy. Most of the crop goes to juice concentrate and preserves, and only a small fraction is vinified.
As wine, Concord is medium-bodied, opaque purple and frequently finished off-dry or sweet, with a perfumed, musky character that many drinkers outside eastern North America find hard to place as wine. Its commercial strength lies in cold-hardiness and dependable cropping rather than refinement, which explains its dominance in the lake-moderated belts of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in irrigated eastern Washington.
Concord arose in the town of Concord, Massachusetts. In 1840 wild grapes brought up from the river bank were scattered around the home of a local grower, Ephraim Wales Bull; a seedling appeared there and bore its first fruit in 1843. Bull sowed seed from that vine, the next generation fruited in 1849, and he kept only the best seedling and destroyed the rest. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society recorded the variety under the name Concord in 1853, and cuttings spread quickly through the northeastern states and then westward.
The seedling was long assumed to be a chance labrusca selection, yet its hermaphrodite flowers, a vinifera trait, pointed to a more mixed origin. A 2020 analysis of nuclear and plastid DNA identified V. vinifera as the maternal parent and V. labrusca as the paternal parent, and inferred that the vine descends from an F1 hybrid backcrossed to labrusca, which accounts for its strongly fox-grape character.
Concord is a parent of Niagara and Moore's Diamond, and Concord Seedless is a seedless mutation of it. The name White Concord belongs to Niagara, not to a colour mutant. In Austria the vine was long listed separately as Ripatella until a court-ordered DNA analysis showed the two to be identical.
Concord is among the hardiest grapevines in cultivation. It comes through winters that kill most vinifera, and it copes with a wider range of soils and climates than any other American variety. Vigour and yields are high, and ripening falls in the middle to later part of the season. Bunches are medium in size with large berries; in warm climates these tend to ripen unevenly and are prone to splitting. Serious threats are eutypa dieback, phomopsis and black rot. Downy mildew, anthracnose, crown gall and bunch rot pose only a moderate risk. Sulphur sprays scorch the leaves and fruit readily, so growers turn to other fungicides. Vineyards grown for juice are usually trained to a high wire or a divided canopy, which suits mechanical pruning and harvesting.
Concord table wine is dark bluish purple and medium-bodied, with soft tannin and a pronounced foxy perfume. Many examples are made off-dry or sweet, because residual sugar softens the assertive aroma; dry bottlings exist but are uncommon. Kosher producers have long used the grape, and sweet versions are a staple of the eastern United States wineries that make it. Wine is a minor outlet: processors take the great majority of the crop for juice and jelly, and in New York only a small share is vinified. In Austria, Concord is one of the American direct-producer varieties, along with Delaware and Elvira, authorised for Uhudler, a rustic, fruity table wine from the Südburgenland, produced in volumes of roughly 160,000 litres a year. Brazilian growers use it for both juice and simple wines.
Where it grows
New York
The historic heart of Concord production, with roughly 8,200 ha (20,200 acres) recorded in 2006, mostly along Lake Erie in Chautauqua County and in the Finger Lakes. Only a small share of the harvest becomes wine.
Pennsylvania and Ohio
The Lake Erie grape belt extends into Erie County, Pennsylvania, where over 12,000 acres of vines, chiefly Concord, feed juice, jelly and wine production. Plantings destined for wine totalled about 430 ha in Pennsylvania in 2008 and about 270 ha in Ohio.
Washington
Area under vine reached around 10,100 ha (25,000 acres) in 2011, largely irrigated vineyards in the Yakima Valley grown for juice processing. Weak grape prices in the mid-2010s led growers to pull out vines, and trade estimates put the total near 16,600 acres (about 6,700 ha) by 2020.
Midwest and Michigan
Smaller plantings in Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and other states supply regional wineries. Oliver Winery in Indiana and Stone Hill, located in Missouri, are known for sweeter bottlings.
Austria and Brazil
Under the names Concordia and Ripatella, Concord is allowed in Uhudler from the Südburgenland, a wine that may not be sold as quality wine. Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil held about 2,500 ha in 2007.