Buffalo

A Blue-Black Wine or Jelly Grape
Similar Varieties: Steuben, Price, Concord

 Image from bunchgrape.com

   Ripens Early September  --  Very popular grape for juice & jelly. Makes a very fruity wine.

  Usage Notes  --  Wine, Jelly, Juice, Table  -- 

Buffalo is a productive, Concord-type grape, and a great choice for making juice and for eating fresh from the vine. Large clusters of reddish black grapes with wonderful flavor are ready at least a week before Concord. This vigorous American hybrid is easy to grow in much of the nation.

Most people like buffalo wine with a sweet finish. It makes a "candy-like" ruby red wine.

Buffalo Winemaking Recipes...

Harvest Notes -

  Variety Info -- Buffalo (Herbert x Watkins) From Cornell University's Geneva, New York experiment station. Blue-black, slipskin, with berries much like Concord in appearance, but on smaller clusters. Flavor is fruity and spicey, with less of the labrusca flavor than most American varieties. Has been used in winemaking because it has tannins similar to vinifera from that species in it's ancestry. Does best with good soil fertility. Secondary crop is good if frost hits the primary shoots. Vine is upright. Prune to three bud spurs on cordons. Hardy to between -15 to -20 F.

It is considered by most to have the highest dessert quality of the early black grapes. It is non "Foxy", juicy, very sweet, spicy, tart and vinous. It makes a "candy-like" ruby red wine.

  Where are the Buffalo vines located in the vineyard?

• Rows 3 & 4
• Row 47
• Rows 88 & 89 North

Each row has about 50 vines.

Rows 3 & 4 were part of the original vineyard planted in 1983. Buffalo has been very popular and more rows have been planted over the years. The last planting (rows 88 & 89 north end) were done in 2005.

The rows on the East side and back part of the vineyard are trained to a Geneva Double Curtain trellis, which means there are 2 top wires 4 feet apart (like utility poles) This gives the vines more room to grow

    Links & Resources 

• Jelly Making

• Grape recipes for the Table

• Step by Step Winemaking

• Home winemaking with Eastern Grapes

• Making Red Wine

• WineMaking Articles & Resources

• Winemaking Resources from our Links Pages

• A Year in the Vineyard Pictorial - Part I - DeChaunac

    Where can I Purchase Buffalo Wine & Vines?

I have not seen Buffalo wine sold in stores. It is very unique and most buffalo grapes go to the fresh market.

It may be included (but not on the label) of many wines that have a fruity, sweeter finish.

Please visit our Winery Locator Page to find wineries which make this kind of wine....

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