SC - Historical varieties

[James Prescott]

At 01:25 -0500 2001-04-05, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> If you were a vine grower, and you had to trim off and cull a bunch of
> your grapes anyway, would you not try to sell them for verjuice, even
> if it sold for a lower price than the verjuice from specially grown
> varieties?

Absolutely.



And another almost-smoking reference, from Dictionnaire de L'Académie 
française, 1st Edition, 1694:

"Verjus. s. m. Le jus, le suc qu'on tire de certains raisins, quand ils 
sont encore tout verds."

Verjuice. masculine noun. The juice, the juice that one extracts from
certain grapes, when they are still entirely green. (my translation)

It's the presence of the word 'certains', which would not otherwise 
be necessary, that suggests that particular varieties were destined 
for verjuice.


In the 1798 edition of the same dictionary we have another almost-
smoking reference for verjuice grapes:

"Verjus, Une certaine espèce de raisin qui n'est pas bon à faire 
du vin, dont les grains sont gros et longs, et qui ont la peau 
fort dure."

Verjuice, a certain species of grape that is not good for making 
wine, of which the grapes are big and long, and which have very 
tough skin. (my translation)

Again, it's the presence of the otherwise unnecessary "certaine 
espèce de" which suggests a particular variety or varieties.


On the other hand, the same 1798 dictionary has dropped the 
'certains' from its definition for verjuice proper.

"VERJUS. s. m. Le suc acide qu'on tire des raisins qui ne sont pas 
mûrs."

Verjuice. noun masculine. The acid juice that one extracts from 
grapes that aren't ripe. (my translation)

The absence of the qualification here highlights its presence in 
the other two references from the same dictionary.


An aside: In modern French wine harvest talk, a 'verjus' is a grape
that looks ripe but isn't.  The people harvesting should detect
these and avoid picking them, which isn't always easy when they 
are paid by the quantity they pick.  As a result a sorter has to 
look the grapes over later and reject the 'verjus' since they'd 
lower the quality of the wine.  During the harvest it seems that 
'verjus' are often thrown at other harvesters during horseplay.


Second aside:  The finest Dijon mustard is apparently made using 
verjuice, not vinegar.  This usage is said to have begun in 1752.


Thorvald