Talk:Concord grape

Conflict

"Concord grapes are used for grape juice, and their distinctive purple color has led to grape-flavored soft drinks and candy being artificially colored purple while methyl anthranilate, a chemical present in Concord grapes, is used to give "grape" flavor."

"Non-toxic sprays that contain methyl anthranilate can be sprayed on the bushes as a cost-effective bird control management. The spray repellent renders the fruit and foliage unpalatable to the birds."

Perhaps one of these statements is in error. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.124.116.101 (talk) 05:41, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

A compound in concord grapes is used for flavoring in human food.

The same compound sprayed on the outside of the fruit is unpalatable to birds.

What makes you think these statements are not compatible? - SummerPhD^v2.0 03:31, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

I came here to comment on this paragraph also. On the one hand, the compound gives the grape, which birds love, its "grapiness", but on the other hand the compound is repulsive to birds? At very least this apparent conflict requires some explanation. Is it the concentration that makes the difference? JKeck (talk) 14:42, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

"A notable dry version comes from Penn Shore Winery & Vineyards in Lake Erie AVA in Pennsylvania. This region is known for the highest Concord quality and over 10,000 acres planted."

Doesn't seem to belong in the lede. Drsruli (talk) 20:39, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Should be high importance 173.95.112.178 (talk) 15:27, 7 April 2025 (UTC)

Use of Concord Grape root stock to rescue European viticulture

I think that this story would be informative and relevant to the Concord Grape article. https://daily.jstor.org/the-great-grape-graft-that-saved-the-wine-industry/ So the story goes that in the mid 19th century a blight of aphids hit the roots of the great European vineyards, but that the Concord grape roots, being resistant to this aphid, were imported and even to this day all wine grapes are grown on Concord root stock. Woogawoogawooga (talk) 23:33, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Pedigree & percent Vitis vinifera

I'll leave it to the more wiki knowledgeable whether or not to add this, but here's the info:

The parents of Concord are described as Catawba and a wild grape in "The Grapes of New York" by Ulysses Hedrick, on page 221 of the book (299 of the pdf/ebook), archived at https://archive.org/details/grapesofnewyork00hedruoft/page/n299/mode/2up

The Vitis vinefera parent of Catawba is 'Sémillon' as confirmed in Huber et al., Vitis 55, 53–56 (2016) https://ojs.openagrar.de/index.php/VITIS/article/view/6422 (you have to click the PDF button to get to the paper.) This reference also confirms that Concord is Catawba X a wild V. labrusca.

The proportion of V. vinifera in Concord, 0.31, or 31% (along with the value for Catawba and many other grapes) is in the supplemental material of Sawler et al, PLoS ONE 8, e80791, specifically Table S1, an Excel sheet. Link to full paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0080791 Link to the Table S1 sheet: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080791.s005

Based on the above, at a minimum, I'd suggest changing the text "The grape, a hybrid crossed with one-third Vitis vinifera" to "The grape, a hybrid with approximately one-third Vitis vinifera DNA" or something similar, perhaps even citing 'Sémillon' as the source of the vinifera parentage and using Sawler as the reference. Even changing "a hybrid crossed with one-third" to "a hybrid cross with one third" makes more sense. The pedigree may also be useful.

The two wild V. labrusca parents are lost to time, apparently.

Some of this information is also available in the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) entry for Concord, https://www.vivc.de/index.php?var=2801&r=eva-analysis-mikrosatelliten-abstammungen%2Findex JohnMc (talk) 22:09, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the research! The sources support the revision. Choose the best 1-2, and WP:BEBOLD. Zefr (talk) 23:23, 31 July 2026 (UTC)