Re: [nafex] winey apples

["victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>]

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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