[Sca-cooks] Verjus

[Edouard de Bruyerecourt]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Among the theories that I remember being discussed here was that 
> verjuice was a way to use grapes that had to be picked from the vines 
> early. I believe you have to thin out the grapes as they grow. This 
> kind of info out to be in any books on growing grapes for wine, but 
> I've not tried to search this out. I think this idea that the verjuice 
> was, at least originally, a product of grapes that had to be thinned, 
> holds merit because why pick them early just for verjuice if you can 
> leave them on the vine and get ripe grapes which can get turned into 
> wine? 

Using the culled grapes from thinning to make verjuice, essentially 
making a use for an otherwise waste product, seems quite practical and 
logical to me. Yes, you would want to thin the grapes before the vine 
started putting that much energy and effort into all the grapes. This is 
a practice that I've seen. You don't nessessarily want _plumper_ grapes, 
just richer. If you have a high yield, the flavour/intensity of the 
subsequent juice/wine is lowered, while if you have a low yield during 
an otherwise normal climate year, it intensifies the flavours of the 
resulting wine. And it really nudges up the price between higher quality 
and lower supply. Chilean wines are inexpensive because of high yields 
irrigated by all that snowmelt coming off the Andes. High yield, which 
most are just table wine quality. The eating grapes tend to be very 
large, also.

Thinning the grapes early means small grapes. That would also make for a 
lot of skin to fruit ratio and possibly increase the amount of tannins 
in the resulting verjuice. I also think even red grapes start off green, 
and darken as they grow and ripen, making the term 'green juice' even 
more appropriate.

I need to talk to a enologist now.

I found a reference to 'verjuice' in the context to pruning for vine 
quality, and no reference at all to culinary verjuice. The article is 
about growing wine grapes in Spain.

"Both in shoot thinning after the harvest as in summer pruning (cutting 
off of undesirable verjuice bunches to avoid overcropping), he must act 
so as to obtain maximum concentration in the grapes. Quality of the 
berries should prevail over quantity. Lower yields lead to higher 
concentration levels and vice versa." (de Serdio, Ernesto, and Andres 
Vegas; "Wine the Colour of Day, the Colour of Night;" Reserva y Cata, 
June 2001;
http://www.reservaycata.com/ingles/press301.htm)

This reference makes me wonder if 'verjuice bunches' has become a term 
for the thinned grapes in vinticulture that as lost it's subsequent 
culinary meaning. Unless they still make verjuice from this trimmings in 
Spain. I've also come across a few Aussie/NZ websites that refer to 
verjuice as a common condiment in regional cooking. Any comments?

-- 
Edouard, Sire de Bruyerecourt
bruyere at jeffnet.org
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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, 
while bad people will find a way around the laws." 
- Plato (427-347 B.C.)