July 31, 2006
 
THOMCORD: New Grape Variety Draws Ready Fans
 
By Dennis Pollock
Sacramento Bee
 

Some of the hybrid varieties of grapes created by David Ramming at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Center in Parlier, Calif. (SHNS photo by Kurt Hegre / The Fresno Bee)
Two of the giants of the grape world have been married at a laboratory near Fresno, CA: the purplish-black Concord of peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich fame and the green Thompson Seedless, a top-selling table grape. The resulting offspring -- called the Thomcord -- is not expected to become a major commercial variety. But it's earning a spot as a sentimental favorite at farmers' markets with visitors transplanted from the East and Midwest, where Concord table grapes are common.
 
"All we hear is, 'This brings me back to my childhood,' " said Linda Raphael of Reedley, who sells fruit at markets in Fresno and Southern California. Her late father-in-law, Vartan Apkarian, participated in growing trials for the new variety and others more than 20 years ago.
 
Scientists put the Thomcord through 17 years of scrutiny in California vineyards before determining in 2003 that it was ready and making cuttings available for growers and gardeners.
 
Some of the experimental fruit has been sold at farmers' markets, where it will again be available starting in late July and into August this year. The Thomcord may appear in supermarkets within a few years, and plant stock could be available in stores within two years, said David Ramming, who heads grape-breeding studies at the Agricultural Research Service in Parlier, Calif., run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 
David Ramming of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Center in Parlier, Calif., has done a number of hybrid versions of grapes. Among the varieties he has worked with are a cross between Thompson seedless and the Concord. (SHNS photo by Kurt Hegre / The Fresno Bee)
Ramming said the Thomcord was an unexpected bonus of a laboratory experiment he and technician Ronald Tarailo conducted in the 1980s. Their intent was to hybridize a Thompson with a Concord to answer a scientific question about what was then a new procedure for developing superior seedless grapes. Ramming has been a pioneer in the development of a number of different varieties of grapes and other fruit -- including the Crimson Seedless table grape, Owen T and John W plums, the Selma Pete raisin grape and the DOVine raisin variety.
 
Ramming said the Thomcord is unlikely to be a commercial favorite because its flavor is not as neutral as that of other grapes, such as the Crimson Seedless and Thompson Seedless, which have vied for the top table-grape spot over the past three years, or another favorite, the Flame Seedless. "It won't become a Flame Seedless or Crimson Seedless," he said. "It will be like a Muscat, a specialty item," he said, because of its distinctive flavor, a Concordlike flavor lightened by the sweet, mild taste of its Thompson parent.
 
The Thompson is a mainstay of the raisin industry centered in the central San Joaquin Valley.
 
The Thomcord has the blue-black skin of the Concord and is well-suited for California's sunny vineyards, Ramming said. The Concord prefers higher humidity and is commercially grown in Washington state, New York and Michigan.
 
"The Thomcord has a nice, strong Concord flavor. But it's like eating a Thompson," Raphael said. "The skin is like a Thompson and very edible, not like the skin of a Concord that is tough and makes it a 'suck and spit' grape."
 
Raphael said she has been selling Thomcords for five years at farmers' markets.
 
"This should be a good backyard gardener's grape (in California) because it is less susceptible to mildew," she said.
 
The Thompson and Concord are old-timers. The Concord was developed in 1849 by Ephraim Wales Bull in Concord, Mass. Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch developed the first Concord grape juice in 1869.
 
The Thompson Seedless is named for William Thompson, a farmer near Yuba City who introduced the grape to California in the 1860s.
 
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