www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER NOVEMBER 2015 33
N.Y.
ESCARPMENT
OF
ALLEGHENY
PLATEAU
Lake
Erie
Buffalo
Silver Creek
Dunkirk
Fredonia
Westfi eld
Ripley
NEW YORK
PENNSYLVANIA
AREA OF
DETAIL
10 MILES
N
90
VINEYARDS
Repeated late
freezes in the
spring of 2012 cost
the Concord Belt
growers millions
of dollars. But
extremely low
temperatures
during the last
two winters have
done longer-term
damage, killing
vines outright.
The
Concord
Belt
PHOTOS BY RICHARD LEHNERT/GOOD FRUIT GROWER
Concord grapes occupy about 30,000 acres between the
Lake Erie shore and the Allegheny Plateau Escarpment, the
high ground visible in the distance.
Bull in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1849. Recent genetic
testing shows it has some vinifera parentage, as well as
lambrusca. In the 1870s, it was brought to western New
York, where climate, geography, and soils proved to be
very suitable to its production.
The slip-skin purple grape is also grown in the Finger
Lakes region of New York, in southwestern Michigan,
and in Washington State. The grape forms the base
JARED JOHNSON/GOOD FRUIT GROWER