Saw the most amazing grape juice yesterday.

Agria grape in a Willmes Bladder press - at Stone Wolf Winery. The free run juice was a brilliant deep purple/magenta, with absolutely no pressure applied and no time on the skins. The skin is black and the flesh of the grape is that purple/magenta color. They look remarkably like the Bing cherries on my big old cherry tree. Haven't tasted it yet.

I used to make wine from a grape that was like that black skins with red pulp. It's a hybrid called DeChaunac, but the grower I used to get it from had to tear it all out. I've been tasting lots of fresh pressed juice over the past few weeks, and will be pressing a lot more tomorrow. However, a lot of local cider mills sell fresh press Concord juice, which tastes much better than Welches.

If it makes a decent wine, have them save back some for my next visit.

From Anthony Hawkins Super Gigantic Y2K Winegrape Glossary*:

TURAN: Has synonym name Agria. Hungarian red wine variety with deeply colored flesh, released in 1985, with complex parentage of Bikavar 8 (resulting from a Teinturier x Kadarka Blau cross) and Gardonyi G, the offspring of a Malbec x Perle de Csaba cross. Widely grown in Hungary and other Eastern European countries where it is most commonly used as a color-enhancing blend wine with Blauburgunder or to increase color intensity in wine blends such as "Egri Bikavar". Also grown on small acreages in British Columbia, Canada, where it has achieved some success as a varietal wine with flavors claimed to have a resemblance to wines made with certain Pinot Noir clones. Having high vigor growth, training to a double separated vertical spur-pruned cordon is recommended in cool climate regions. Reported to be frost resistant to -10 deg. F. (14 deg. C). Normally ripens in early September with good sugar content.


*The Glossary can be seen in its entirety at http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineguest/wgg.html

It certainly has color enhancing abilities - I barely touched the juice and grapes and my hands are stained. Not that they already weren't leaning to purple, just added another layer.
Pretty interesting stuff, my first time working with so we will see. This is for a Client, so we won't have any to sell, but if I don't mess it up, will let you know where to get it.
The juice sure tastes yummy.
L