John from Duplin Winery--A Chance Meeting

One of the things that is so interesting about going to a trade show such as Wineries Unlimited is the opportunity for chance meetings. We sat next to John from Duplin Winery in the session on Winery DIY that we attended in order to learn about marketing. We learned from John that Duplin Winery is located in North Carolina and they make sweet wines from the muscadine grape. That jogged my memory from listening to Carole Meredith speak about the muscadine grape, Vitis rotundifolia. John mentioned that Duplin has been a family winery since 1970 and now they sell about 300,000 cases a year!
I'm Google-mining muscadines to learn more about this unusual grape and found some great information from the North Carolina Muscadine Grape Association. The muscadines are native to the southern United States, having a tough skin that can range in color from bronze to reddish to black. I also came across an article The mother of all vines gives birth to a new wine, published in The Virginian-Pilot, on July 14, 2008 by Catherine Kozak which featured the following photo of the oldest cultivated grapevine in the world. It is 400 years old! This mother vine has been known to produce grapes up to two inches in diameter!

The other thing about the muscadine grape is that they have found that they contain the highest levels of resveratrol compared to other grape varieties:

Who knew! I like the idea of celebrating grape and wine diversity especially when the grape is loaded with resveratrol.