One of around 30 American species or wild vines with the full botanical name Vitis rupestris Scheele. It was first described in 1848 by the German botanist Georg Heinrich Adolf Scheele (1808-1864), who is also immortalised in the name for this reason. Together with the two species Vitis acerifolia and Vitis riparia, it forms the Ripariae group.
Due to the often stony subsoil of its habitats, it is also known by the trivial synonyms rock grape or sand grape, as well as beach grape, bush grape, currant grape, Ingar grape, July grape, mountain grape, rock grape, sand grape and sugar grape. The vine is mainly found in the temperate, warm areas of the south-west of the United States in treeless prairies. These are mainly the US states of Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. In contrast to other wild vines, it is not a climbing plant, requires a lot of light and warmth and grows as a small bush mainly on dry sand, gravel and crushed stone soils along mountain rivers and in dry riverbeds.
For me, Lexicon from wein.plus is the most comprehensive and best source of information about wine currently available.
Egon Mark
Diplom-Sommelier, Weinakademiker und Weinberater, Volders (Österreich)