This is not the best time for grapes. Most supplies are from the tail-end of the southern hemisphere season and many berries, while still having reasonable sweetness and texture, are clinging to dry-looking stems and will not look the part on a respectable cheese platter.
However, several premium varieties are still available from Chile and Brazil. As these will be slightly more expensive, you can expect them to look fresh, and, with careful attention to the variety, their flavour is delicious enough to forgive minor deficiencies.
What to Buy?
- Black grapes: Sable from Chile or Vitoria, both of which have an intense ‘wine-grape’ flavour and sweetness. Vitoria, a Brazilian variety, is probably the more intense of the two, but with smaller berries.
- Pink grape: Muscat Beauty is a wonderful rose-coloured grape, currently from Chile. The berries are round and soft, with exquisite flavour.
- White grape: Cotton Candy, also currently from Chile, is a Californian variety with high levels of sweetness with a hint of candy floss.
Where to buy?
- M&S: Sable, Muscat Beauty and Cotton Candy
- Waitrose: Vitoria, Muscat Beauty and Cotton Candy
- Morrisons: Sable and Muscat Beauty
19th May, 2017
©Good Fruit Guide 2017. Recommendations on fruit varieties and types with the very best taste are personal to the editor of Good Fruit Guide, and do not attempt to be exhaustive or supported by verifiable consumer research. The highlighting of fruit with the very best taste in the opinion of the editor is not intended as a judgement on the taste of varieties and types of fruit not mentioned.