Magic grape

This article is about the fruits of the genus Vitis. For the European grapevine, see Vitis vinifera. For other uses, see Grape (disambiguation).

Grapes

"White" (light green) and "black" (dark blue) table grapes
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus Vitis. Grapes are a non-climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.

The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, and the fruit has been used as human food over history. Eaten fresh or in dried form (as raisins, currants and sultanas), grapes also hold cultural significance in many parts of the world, particularly for their role in winemaking. Other grape-derived products include various types of jam, juice, vinegar and oil.

Grapes, red or green
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 288 kJ (69 kcal)
Carbohydrates
18.1 g
Sugars 15.48 g
Dietary fiber 0.9 g
Fat
0.16 g
Protein
0.72 g
Vitamins Quantity%DV†
Thiamine (B1) 6%0.069 mg
Riboflavin (B2) 6%0.07 mg
Niacin (B3) 1%0.188 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5) 1%0.05 mg
Vitamin B6 7%0.086 mg
Folate (B9) 1%2 μg
Choline 1%5.6 mg
Vitamin C 4%3.2 mg
Vitamin E 1%0.19 mg
Vitamin K 14%14.6 μg
Minerals Quantity%DV†
Calcium 1%10 mg
Iron 3%0.36 mg
Magnesium 2%7 mg
Manganese 3%0.071 mg
Phosphorus 3%20 mg
Potassium 4%191 mg
Sodium 0%2 mg
Zinc 1%0.07 mg
Other constituents Quantity
Water 81 g
Link to USDA Database entry
Units
μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams
IU = International units
†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA FoodData Central
History
The Middle East is generally described as the homeland of grapes and the cultivation of this plant began there 6,000–8,000 years ago.[1][2] Yeast, one of the earliest domesticated microorganisms, occurs naturally on the skins of grapes, leading to the discovery of alcoholic drinks such as wine. The earliest archeological evidence for a dominant position of wine-making in human culture dates from 8,000 years ago in Georgia.[3][4][5]

The oldest known winery was found in Armenia, dating to around 4000 BC.[6] By the 9th century AD, the city of Shiraz was known to produce some of the finest wines in the Middle East. Thus it has been proposed that Syrah red wine is named after Shiraz, a city in Persia where the grape was used to make Shirazi wine.[7]

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics record the cultivation of purple grapes, and history attests to the ancient Greeks, Cypriots, Phoenicians, and Romans growing purple grapes both for eating and wine production.[8] The growing of grapes would later spread to other regions in Europe, as well as North Africa, and eventually in North America.

In 2005 a team of archaeologists concluded that some Chalcolithic wine jars, which were discovered in Cyprus in the 1930s, were the oldest of their kind in the world, dating back to 3,500 BC.[9] Moreover, Commandaria, a sweet dessert wine from Cyprus, is the oldest manufactured wine in the world, its origins traced as far back as 2000 BC.[10]

In North America, native grapes belonging to various species of the genus Vitis proliferate in the wild across the continent, and were a part of the diet of many Native Americans, but were considered by early European colonists to be unsuitable for wine. In the 19th century, Ephraim Bull of Concord, Massachusetts, cultivated seeds from wild Vitis labrusca vines to create the Concord grape which would become an important agricultural crop in the United States.[11]