I first ran into these grapes when I was a child, at a church-related convention about this same time of year. Green grapes had always been my favorite but these weren't the green grapes I was used to--they were better--and I knew it on first bite. Smaller, rounder, and more opaque, it's a difference you can see, with a crunchier texture and flavor that is both sweeter and tarter at the same time. It's a balance not unlike what we love about riesling wines. Now I've run into some since that aren't 'sweeter', but those were picked under-ripe. A perfect and perfectly ripe perlette will actually be a bit yellower than a Thompson would be at the same stage, and I won't buy them if they're not.
Anyway, as I was munching away here, I wondered aloud to myself that if January is Chile's July, then this is a little early for grapes, no? So I checked just now, and learned that this (December, in fact) is the typical timing for this Chilean crop. It's also an early grape when grown in Mexico and California, spanning the months of May to July.
So there, that's it. There's no purpose to this thread except to talk about what I'm eating. You can move on now.
