Catawba Grapes for Winemaking

[Donald]

My wife bought me a couple of Catawba grape plants. I will be making a
trellis, etc., but I have a question about using them in wine.

The Catawba wine I've bought in stores always has 49% of some other
grape in the wine, and 51% Catawba.

Why is this?

From what I've read, it does make good wine, jelly, jam, etc.

Can I make a decent wine from this or do I need to mix it with another
grape like Niagara or something else?

Thanks!!!

[shbailey]

Stone Hill Winery in Missouri makes an excellent Catawba blend.
http://www.stonehillwinery.com/winesGrapes/pink.aspx
It tastes pretty much like a white Zinfandel. It is mostly Catawba,
but they don't state the percentage. Catawba is less foxy than
Concord or Niagara. Perhaps with blending and sweetness, all negative
aspects of that trait can be eliminated.

Stephen

[Strongarm]

On Jul 1, 9:58 pm, shbailey <shbai...@knology.net> wrote:
> Stone Hill Winery in Missouri makes an excellent Catawba blend.http://www.stonehillwinery.com/winesGrapes/pink.aspx

> > Thanks!!!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I've been making 100% Catawba wine for over 10 years. It has it's own
particular rose type aroma and flavor. Catawba;s history is very
exciting for an American grape. It was crossed with Bacho in the
middle 17th Century. It won a blue ribbon at Paris, France World's
Fair in 1900. There are two distinct methods of fermenting this pink
grape. The blue ribbon recipe basically creates a fairly dry white by
fermenting only the juice and the other method is to ferment on the
skins to build an amber color sweet wine. Both are good and I would
recommend you try them before deciding to blend.

[Donald]

On Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:19:06 -0700 (PDT), Strongarm
<tcarm...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>I've been making 100% Catawba wine for over 10 years. It has it's own
>particular rose type aroma and flavor. Catawba;s history is very
>exciting for an American grape. It was crossed with Bacho in the
>middle 17th Century. It won a blue ribbon at Paris, France World's
>Fair in 1900. There are two distinct methods of fermenting this pink
>grape. The blue ribbon recipe basically creates a fairly dry white by
>fermenting only the juice and the other method is to ferment on the
>skins to build an amber color sweet wine. Both are good and I would
>recommend you try them before deciding to blend.

Sounds like it would make a nice wine by itself. I'll try it on the
skins first.

Any idea how many years it would be before I would get a modest
harvest, say 5 or 6 pounds, to make a gallon of wine?

These vines are each maybe 3 feet tall, first year plantings.