The Pink Catawba

So I tried the Pink Catawba last night. The first impression was one of overwhelming sweetness. Luckily it was well-chilled, so that helped a little. Additionally, it had a very grape-y flavor, perhaps a little tropical fruit to it. The grapiness was not quite the same as the Welch's grape jelly flavor of the concord grape, it was more like the grapiness of the scuppernong muscadine grape. After the initial Koolade shock, a kind of pleasantly mysterious grassiness was manifest. Mostly, this was an aftertaste, though, once detected, it was manifest in subsequent sips. Also, it had a ton of body. This was surely due to the tooth-achingly huge amount of sugar in it.

Overall: I liked the muscadine grapiness, though it would be better toned down. I liked the grassy/herbaceous notes quite a bit. This would be a much better wine with more acid and much less sweetness. Is the sweetness of a wine mostly a function of its production, or does it depend more on the grape itself? That is, would it be possible to make a drier Catawba? I'd be interested in trying that.

Hmm... maybe I should try some other varietal: Chardonel, Vidal Blanc, Verdelet, or Vignoles. All of these are hybrids reputed to be drier than Catawba, but possessing interesting fruitiness

PS: If you haven't tried a scuppernong grape, you must get some. They are mostly grown in Georgia, but are shipped around the country (at least to fancy markets in the Midwest) around this time of year. They are fantastic and quite different from the run-of-the-mill grocery store grape.