Grape trivia

Muscadine vineyard at September Oaks.

By Aliceann Toole

Someone asked recently how much wine an acre of grapes produced. There’s no hard and fast rule, but depending on the grape variety, an acre will produce one to three tons of fruit.

That question got me interested in other trivia about grapes and wine, so here are a few additional facts:

** Up to three pounds — amount of fruit required to make one bottle of wine

** 30-35 years — productive lifetime of a vine … although the quality may remain good, the yield begins to diminish

** 75-100 — number of grapes in a cluster

** One — number of grape clusters in a glass of wine

** 100-125 — number of calories in a 5-ounce glass of dry wine

** Zero — amount of fat in a glass of wine

** On average, a grapevine needs 1,300 to 1,500 hours of sunlight during its growing season, and 27 inches of rain throughout the year to produce grapes suitable for winemaking.

** The optimum weather during the growing season is a long, warm summer that allows the opportunity to ripen fully and to develop a balance between the levels of acids and sugars in the grape.

Now, if a grape category comes up at a pub trivia quiz, you’re ready.