By Mike Dunne
Sacramento BeeCalifornia's grape industry makes for a long, dense and complex story, starting with Spanish missionaries more than two centuries ago and continuing through today's cultivation of massive new vineyards.
The most significant chapter began when William Thompson, a native of Yorkshire, England, began to farm in the Yuba City area, in Northern California, in the 1860s.
In 1872, he and his son George got three grape cuttings from a nursery in New York and grafted them to existing grapevines.
No one knows for sure what variety the Thompsons received. It may have been the Oval Kishmish, a popular variety around the eastern Mediterranean, although the name is Hungarian for "oval seedless." Or it may have been the Lady de Coverly. Or it may have been some sort of natural mutation.
At any rate, just one of the three vines survived a flood the following spring, according to Peter J. Delay's 1924 "History of Yuba & Sutter Counties, California."
In 1875, the Thompsons exhibited impressive bunches of grapes from the vine at the Marysville Fair. On the fair's entry form they named it the Thompson Seedless, notes Delay. From there the grape's celebrity spread fast through the state. (Elsewhere in the world it's known as the Sultana and is believed to possibly have originated in Iran.)
"It's an amazing grape," says Jim Howard of the California Table Grape Commission, noting that the Thompson Seedless is responsible for more of the fresh-grape, raisin and wine markets than any other grape in the state. It's a big, sturdy and fruity green grape.
Of the 850,000 acres planted to grapes in California, the Thompson Seedless accounts for about 265,000 acres. It dominates the raisin market and long has been responsible for a substantial portion of everyday jug wines out of the San Joaquin Valley. About 28,000 acres are for fresh-grape production.
Overall, only about 15 percent of California's grape acreage is devoted to fresh grapes. Grapes for wine and juice account for 57 percent of the vines, while grapes for raisins account for the remaining 28 percent.
