The Rise, Fall, and Return of the Concord Grape in France

BY ERICA LOME, PhD

The world’s most famous grape began its life in a backyard in Concord. In the 1840s, Ephraim Wales Bull retired to the countryside to become a horticulturist after a career as a gold beater in Boston. At his farm, Bull set out to cultivate a variety of grape that would better withstand early frosts and severe winters. He did 22,000 crossbreeding experiments on 125 vines and in 1849 discovered a wild grape he thought looked promising – it was sweet, palatable, and hardy – and began to propagate it. He named this grape the Concord.

Bull exhibited the Concord grape before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1854 and clippings soon found their way into the hands of every nurseryman in the country. The Concord grape came to dominate the American juice industry thanks to Thomas Welch, who began experimenting with the unfermented juice of grapes in 1869. Welch’s subsequent success overshadowed the career of Ephraim Bull, who lived to see the Concord grape enrich the fortunes of everyone but himself.

Photograph of Ephraim Bull, 1890

Concord Museum Collection, Gift of Mrs. Margaret E. Thompson Sheldon (1926), 2006.50

From the beginning, advertisers positioned the Concord grape as a remedy for all sorts of ailments, including as a health tonic, weight reduction aid, and elixir for the upper class. As it turns out, the grape did more than just quench thirst; it became the unexpected savior of another country’s industry. In the late 1850s, a tiny yellow insect known as grape phylloxera began infecting vineyards in North America, causing grape vines to form galls on the surface of leaves. Rapidly developing transatlantic steamship trade soon brought this invasive species to Europe, where it had a much more harmful effect on native vines. In France, the damage wrought by phylloxera was particularly deadly, as the insects lived and fed below ground, injecting a toxin which caused the roots to swell and quickly die. Growers were unable to discover the blight before it was too late, and phylloxera destroyed 40% of French grape vines over a fifteen-year period.

On both sides of the Atlantic, scientists and growers searched for a cure, and the French government even offered a cash prize to any who could produce a method of total eradication. Meanwhile, in Bordeaux, Leo Laliman watched in surprise as parts of his vineyard flourished while other vines perished. Since the early 1860s, Laliman had collected North American specimens to use in his winegrowing experiments, and they proved unexpectedly valuable once Laliman discovered their rootstock was resistant to phylloxera.

Laliman presented his findings to the national viticultural conference in 1869 and proposed that his fellow winemakers import American vines to grow in French soil. Such an idea was initially unpopular, as growers were reluctant to abandon their traditional varieties. Fellow viticulturist Gason Bazille later proved that native vinifera vines would resist grape phylloxera if grafted onto American rootstocks, thereby preserving European grapes.

Illustration of the Concord grape, produced by Jules Troncy, 1901-1910. From Traité Général de Viticulture.

Bazille and Laliman’s dual proposals sparked a widespread effort throughout the 1870s and 1880s to “reconstitute” French vineyards by importing massive quantities of American grapes. One varietal stood out: the Concord. Easy to cultivate and hardy against mildew and cold weather, the Concord grape turned out to be remarkably resistant to phylloxera. The insects could not fully penetrate its roots, leaving behind surface blotches that did not seriously injure the plant. As a result, hundreds of thousands of roots and cuttings were imported from the United States. Some growers opted to graft each individual European cutting on the American roots, which would enable the vine to produce European fruit. Others chose to replace their entire vineyards with Concord grapes. In either case, the plague abated enough to save the wine industry from complete and utter ruin.

Photograph of Ephraim Bull in Concord, late 1800s

Concord Museum Collection, Gift of Mr. Charles P. Munroe and Mr. William M. Munroe (2008), 2009.4.72

The Concord grape was initially celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic for stemming the tide of destruction, but within the next decade this widespread experiment began to encounter some challenges. First, the peculiar, “foxy” taste of Vitis labrusca did not find favor with French growers. One source put it plainly: “no one accustomed to the use of European wine takes easily to wine from American grapes.” While certainly no luxury, the Concord grape did in fact produce a palatable wine that was popular among the working classes. By separating the juice from residue before fermentation, Concord grapes could even produce wines “which resemble some French white wines,” one source claimed. Though French growers complained, the wholesale destruction of the European vine by the phylloxera made the direct cultivation of American grapes for wine necessary in many cases, with one report concluding: “he who does not own a horse must be content to ride a jackass, or plod along on foot.”

The Phylloxera, a True Gourmet, Finds Out the Best Vineyards and Attaches Itself to the Best Wines” from Punch, 1890

Soon, another pitfall emerged: while American roots had radically slowed the spread of phylloxera, they were not suited for long-term cultivation in Mediterranean soil. Those who transplanted their entire vineyards with American vines soon faced what viticulturists termed “the Concord catastrophe.” It would take many years for growers to determine the correct conditions of soil, exposure, and degree of moisture required for the Concord grape to thrive. Experience would also demonstrate that certain other American species were more suited to the French climate, such as the Spanish-American hybrid Jacques.

These disappointing outcomes did not fully deter growers, many of whom attempted to further hybridize American species with French grapes, creating a Franco-American cross that would be easy to propagate and would be resistant to phylloxera. Eventually, as these hybrid grapes began overtaking native French varietals in popularity and in direct competition, French growers began to fear the loss and displacement of their traditional wines – and cultural heritage. Realizing that these new grapes threatened the reputation of the French wine industry, the French government began to crack down on hybrids and eventually banned Vitis labrusca grapes as “low-quality.” Though traditional French varieties were and continued to be grafted onto American rootstocks, they retained their high status as “purebreds.” Meanwhile, the Concord grape – initially the savior of French wine - was effectively banished from French soil.

Label for the Chautauqua and Erie Grape Company of Westfield, New York, 1910. Concord Museum Collection, Gift of the Cummings Davis Society (1999), 1999.6.

The monumental effort to combat phylloxera in the late nineteenth century did not end there. The bug remains an everconstant threat against the wine industry and scientists continue to search for a true method of eradication. Meanwhile, certain French American hybrids remain active in the United States and other parts of the world thanks to the enology departments at the University of Minnesota and Cornell University. These include Chambourcin, Baco Noir, and Seyval Blanc. None of these achievements could have been possible without the Concord grape, a wild species cultivated by Ephraim Bull whose legacy grew beyond its humble beginnings and blossomed into a global story of creativity, ingenuity, and innovation.

Erica Lome is the Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Associate at the Concord Museum.