North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["JERROLD KOERNER" <j.f.koerner@worldnet.att.net>]

Vic, Its me again.  One of the apples that I thought I had identified back
in New York, had that exact same vinuous flavor that you describe.  The
apples were red and yellow striped and had that long conical shape of a
delicious type.  I thought that it must be a Williams Early Red, as I have
ripened that apple here in Ketchikan and if left on the tree too long it
developes that same winey taste.  Williams is an old Massachuesetts apple
and Berlin is only a 30 minute drive to North Adams and Williamstown Mass.
Jerry

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>From: "victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>
>To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [nafex] winey apples
>Date: Sat, Feb 24, 2001, 4:13 AM
>

> Hi Bob,
> I guess that description was a little informal eh? Oh well, must be one of
> those "you'd have to have been there" things!
> I go out in the fall and taste a  lot of seedling apple trees that have come
> up around old farms and along roads. I look first of all for apples that
> appear to be scab resistant or that have some other outstanding quality. You
> have to taste a lot of apples when you do this.
> In several places and particularly near two old orchards, one in NH one in
> VT, I have come across that same peculiar taste. At both sites, there was
> more than one tree with this flavor in the apple. Though it is VERY
> distinctive, it does not quite stand alone and may be in both sweeter and
> sub-acid apples. Besides this peculiar flavor, the trees appear to be
> seedlings and the fruit smallish and oblate, red/yellow. Nothing about the
> form or color is distinctive that I can remember, only the taste.
> Flavor is a funny thing. We could all taste these apples and find a 
> different
> way to describe them.  The best I can do is: in my opinion the flavor is
> -'strong'
> -'musky' may be a better choice than 'funky'
> -'vinous' is more acceptable than 'winey'
> - some have been slightly 'dry to bitter'
> It's that 'musky/funky/vinous' part that is distinctive. One site was known
> to have been an old cider orchard (as opposed to today's sweet cider) the
> other was not. Of the trees at the site of the old cider orchard, very few
> there now seem to have obvious characteristics of any antique named
> varieties, unless they are old cider varieties of which I am not familiar.
> Only one, which I am growing now to see if it is Duchess of Oldenburg, is
> close. (Often these old cider orchards were grown from seed, though I got 
> the
> impression that the old timer who put in the original trees here was known
> for having grown "cider" apples, like it was known to be special varieties
> even back then.) The other site has many of the old orchard trees still
> there. Of the six varieties still standing, there is only one which I've had
> no luck ID'ing. I have yet to come across that taste in a named apple 
> variety
> (it is not like Winesap).
> Maybe my description will jog someone else's memory.
> ......................vic
>
> carolyn wood wrote:
>
>> Victoria, what kinds of apples were you refering to when you talked about
>> "that funky wine taste"?
>>
>> Bob, Central Utah
>>
>>
>>
>>
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