Muscadine Wine: The Spirit of Mayport
by
Alec Newell
Muscadine
grape vines have been part of the
Mayport landscape since well before Chief Satouriba's ancestors first hunted
deer in the neighborhood. They are first
mentioned in the journal of the French explorer Jean Ribault. He notes that they are "...the highest and fairest vynes in all the worlde with grapes
accordingly, which naturally and without man's helpe and tryming, growe to the
tops of oaks and other trees, that be of a wonderful greatness and
height."
 |
| From1562 sketch by Le Moyne, with grape vines depicted (upper right corner) |
Ribault landed
in Mayport on May first 1562, and since
the local grapes aren't usually ready to
pick until some time in early September, I had often wondered how Ribault knew
that he was looking at wild grape vines.
But Ribault, being a Frenchman, would have been familiar with the wine
producing vines of his native homeland, and may have recognized them by the shape of
their leaves which are mature enough to identify by mid spring. To brag on the size or quality of fruit
would have been a little stretch on his part though.
 |
| c. 1585 from sketch by Jacques Le Moyne |
At one time,
almost every house in the Village had a muscadine grape arbor in the yard. The fruit is still used for making grape
preserves, but during prohibition the juice was routinely used for home made wine. If you talk to the old timers, there seems to
have been as many recipes as there were grape vines. A glass or two of the genuine article seems to
have an amazing ability to sharpen their recollections of the good old days,
especially if it is being served with a side of smoked mullet or a hot bowl of
gopher stew, seasoned up with a little datil pepper sauce.
 |
| Muscadine grape arbor, Mayport, Florida, 2013 photo by Newell |
Wine from
the local grapes can actually be quite good.
In April of 1979, the Florida Times Union-Journal sponsored a home-made
wine making contest and the first place winner was a 1976 vintage bottle of
Mayport Muscadine produced from scratch
by one of the locals. The paper sent a
reporter and a photographer out to his house to get an interview and the recipe. If memory serves, they probably should have sent
along a designated driver too, but that's another story.
 |
| Times Union-Journal article, April 21, 1979 |
The Recipe
 |
| Muscadine grapes |
1) Pick only the ripest grapes in late August or
early September, use no culls.
2) Let picked grapes stand 24 to 48 hours, then
crush the skins.
3) Using a hydrometer, determine the sugar
content of the juice and add sugar until the hydrometer reads 12% potential
alcohol or between 22% and 24% sugar
content on the Brix Balling Scale. (If
you do not have a hydrometer add about 21 oz. of sugar per gallon of juice and
cross your fingers.)
4) Add a package of wine yeast. (If you use bakers' yeast your wine will
smell and taste like bread.)
5) Let the whole crushed grapes stand in a
clean, covered, plastic garbage can from 7 to 10 days. (The longer they stand the redder your wine
will be.)
6) Press the grapes and discard the stems,
seeds, hulls, and skins. Strain the
juice through a funnel into a sterile
glass jug, affix a fermentation lock, bubbler or rubber balloon to the neck,
and store it in a cool dark place. (If
you are not using a balloon, hot
paraffin can be used to seal the neck.)
Air space in the sealed jug should be kept to a minimum.
7) To eliminate sediment, the wine should be "racked" or
siphoned into a clean jug at least once and allowed to settle again. (Once in October, and again in February, if
you can wait that long.) Replace
fermentation locks and reseal the necks after each racking. When the wine is perfectly clear it's time to
bottle. Use sterile bottles and
corks. If you are a beer brewer, you can
use your bottle capper with sterile beer bottles for smaller portions.. An additional hot paraffin seal helps to keep
air from reentering your bottles and spoiling it. Store your wine in a cool dark place.
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