|
Catawba is a red American grape variety used for wine as well as juice, jams and jellies. The grape can have a pronounced musky or "foxy" flavor.〔J. Robinson ''Vines, Grapes & Wines'' pg 228 Mitchell Beazley 1986 ISBN 1-85732-999-6〕 Grown predominantly on the East Coast of the United States, this purplish-red grape is a likely cross of the native American ''Vitis labrusca'' and ''Vitis vinifera''. Its exact origins and parentage are unclear but it seems to have originated somewhere on the East coast from the Carolinas to Maryland. Catawba played an important role in the early history of American wine. During the early to mid-19th century, it was the most widely planted grape variety in the country and was the grape behind Nicholas Longworth's acclaimed Ohio sparkling wines that were distributed as far away as California and Europe. Catawba is a late-ripening variety, ripening often weeks after many other ''labrusca'' varieties and, like many ''vinifera'' varieties, it can be susceptible to fungal grape diseases such as powdery mildew.〔(Growing Grapes in the Home Fruit Planting ), Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet, accessed 2011-01-14〕 ==Origins== The exact origins and parentage of the Catawba grape are unclear.〔T. Pinney ''A History of Wine in America from the Beginnings to Prohibition, Volume 1'' pg 142 University of California Press 1989 ISBN 0-520-06224-8〕 While most sources agree that Major John Adlum was growing the variety at his nursery in Georgetown, Washington, D.C by at least 1823, where he got the cuttings of the vine is unknown with two widowed Maryland women given attribution by different writers. Wine writer Bern Ramey and University of California-Davis viticulture professor Lloyd A. Lider credit Mrs. J. Johnston of Fredericktown, Maryland who wrote to Adlum and said while her late husband always called the grapes "Catawba", she did know where he got the original vines from.〔B. Ramey ''The Great Wine Grapes'' Catawaba entry (no page numbers in book) University of California-Davis, 1977 ASIN B0006CZP4S〕 Historian Thomas Pinney describes a similar story with Adlum receiving the cuttings in 1819 from a Mrs. Scholl of Clarksburg, Maryland whose late husband grew the grape. Again, the story goes that Mrs. Scholl told Adlum that while her husband always called the grape "Catawba", she could not recall where the vines came from.〔 It is possible that the source of the Catawba grapes came from the Rose Hill property, in Rockville, Maryland, which was acquired early in the 19th century by Lewis and Eliza Wootton Beall, as part of Eliza's dowry from her father Richard Wootton. It is during their ownership of Rose Hill that grapes were first cultivated on their property. The remnants of these grapes are still evident in the sole surviving grapevine that runs eastward from the side of the barn towards the Rose Hill Mansion. According to J. Thomas Scharf, the presence of Catawba grapevines at Rose Hill can be traced back to the early decades of the 19th century.〔Scharf. J. Thomas '' History of Western Maryland'' pg 722 altimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1968 (reprint of 1882 edition)〕 Cuttings of the Catawba grape, first discovered in western North Carolina around 1801, are believed to have been transported to Montgomery County before 1816, when they were left by a traveler with Jacob Scholl, an innkeeper in Clarksburg. They appeared at Rose Hill shortly thereafter when Eliza Beall obtained some cuttings from her brother Singleton Wootton, who had, in turn, gotten them from Scholl.〔Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form Maryland Historical Trust ''Addendum to Inventory No. M: 26/8, Rose Hill Farm/Bullard Mansion Historic District'' pg 4 Maryland Historical Trust 2003〕 The Catawba grape is one of the earliest native American grapes used in wine production, but can also be eaten or made into grape juice, jam, or jelly. The Vitis International Variety Catalogue gives credit to the Scholls and describes Catawba as a crossing of the North American species ''Vitis labrusca'' with the European species ''Vitis vinifera'' and list 1819 as its likely introduction.〔(Catawba ), Vitis International Variety Catalogue, accessed 2011-01-14〕 The ''Oxford Companion to Wine'' states the vine was identified in North Carolina even earlier, in 1802, but does not state who discovered the variety.〔J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 144 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0-19-860990-6〕 British wine expert Oz Clarke also places the vine's origins in North Carolina but claims that it was first identified in 1801.〔Oz Clarke ''Encyclopedia of Grapes'' pg 59 Harcourt Books 2001 ISBN 0-15-100714-4〕 The possible Carolina origins does correspond with circumstantial details about the name "Catawba". In the Carolinas there is the Catawba River that flows through the territory of the Catawba people who populated an area that extended over the North Carolina-South Carolina border. However, the 19th century wine historian Dr. U. P. Hedrick wrote in his 1908 book ''The Grapes of New York State'' that the South Carolina growers who corresponded regularly with Adlum never once mentioned the grape in their letters.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catawba (grape)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|