Wild Grapes Traditional Cache

Wild Grapes are easy to identify, but hard to specify. This is potentially a P & G, depending on how good my coords are.

Wild Grapes.

“Of the eight species of grapes in the Vitis genus, six are native to North America, while only vinifera is native to Europe and amurensis to Asia. The powerhouse species native to Europe gives us varieties (also called cultivars) such as merlot, cabernet sauvignon, riesling, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc. Basically every wine grape most of us can think of.

Of the six native species that had been growing in North America long before European settlers arrived, some may sound more familiar than others: rotundifolia (muscadine), aestivalis (summer grape), riparia (frost grape), labrusca (fox grape), mustangensis (Mustang grape), and rupestris (sand grape). Over the last hundred years some interest has been given to this rowdy and uncouth bunch of American species. While these grapes are not as widely cultivated or commercialized as vinifera varieties, they do show potential for making enjoyable wines and deserve to be recognized.

First, a quick look at the family tree, we begin with the genus Vitis as the trunk of the tree. Moving upward, most scientists list two subgenera, with Muscadinia branching away on its own.

This being the case, Muscadinia contains three species including rotundifolia. The key reason for this division has been the muscadine’s inability to successfully crossbreed with other species and create fertile offspring, similar to a donkey and a horse, due to their 40 Chromosomes in contrast to 38 for all other species.

From here, each of the species has numerous varieties within it. As noted earlier, with the exception of muscadine, these can interbreed with one another to create completely new varieties known as hybrids or inter-specific crossings. This sometimes happens in the wild—cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc crossed to create cabernet sauvignon, for example—but more frequently these crosses are the result of human manipulation.”

I suspect these grapes are a form of labrusca, i.e concord or niagara. That’s just a guess, as I haven’t been able to find a picture identical to the leaves at GZ. Then again, the leaves vary. At least these grapes are endemic to the region.

The cache is a camoed, small, "small" pill bottle with a tab to push down, while you screw off the lid. It holds only a rolled log with a rubber band, in a plastic zip lock bag. Please keep track of the rubber band (on your finger?) so everything can fit easily back in the cache. BYOP and no tweezers please, they kill the plastic. 

It's a needle in a haystack, sort of. I first looked for a spot behind the grapes in the picture, closer to the road than GZ. Then I looked down and saw poison ivy. So I went further down the track. Behind the vines that stretch out to the track, I found a mowed area without poison ivy. That's where I reached in and hung it. Good luck!