Mission (grape)

Mission grapes are a variety of Vitis vinifera introduced from Spain to the western coasts of North and South America by Catholic New World missionaries for use in making sacramental, table, and fortified wines.

[25] Yet, back in Spain, the vines which the Mission grapes had descended from, were wiped out by phylloxera in all areas except the Canary Islands.

[27][e] During the Prohibition era, the grape largely disappeared from California, with wine made in Mexico smuggled into the United States.

[32][h] In 2017, most of the state's remaining plantings of the Mission grapes are in the Gold Country, growing in about total 1,000 acres (400 ha).

[25] By 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that Mission grapes are grown on about 400 acres (160 ha) in California.

[1] Cultivation has also begun in Baja California, Mexico, where 24 acres (9.7 ha) of century old vines are harvested near Tecate.

[3] Recently, it has been proposed that the Sonoma grape was brought to Northern California from Peru by Russian settlers of Fort Ross in 1817.

[44] Angelica made from mission grapes has been described as "unusually sweet,"[44] with notes "reminiscent of molasses, dried figs, caramel, nuts and toffee.".

[4][25][47] Despite being almost extinct in California after a century of being maligned and put down as an inferior grape, recently interest has increased in Mission again.

[48] In December 2006, Spanish scholars from the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología in Madrid uncovered the name and origin of the mysterious Mission grape, as well as which were the earliest European vines grown in the Americas.

[11] The scholars determined that the Mission grape's DNA matched a little-known Spanish variety called Listan Prieto.