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Grapes

Vitis

Celebrated as both a source of food and wine for thousands of years, grapes are the fruits of perennial climbing vines in the plant family Vitaceae.

Ancient Egyptains, Phoenicians and Greeks loved them and their use spread throughout the ancient world. The Romans used grapes fresh, in wines, as a food sweetener and in savoury sauces. Today we also use them in jams, jellies, juices, for raisins and currants, and for seed oil.

Grapes grow in clusters of six to 300, and can be black, blue, golden, green, purple, red, pink, brown, peach or white. The most commonly grown grapevine is Vitis vinifera, native to the eastern Mediterranean. Today there are more than 8,000 varieties of grape, but only 40 or so are commercially important, ranging from Alicante to Zinfandel. Most European vineyards now have to graft Vitis vinifera onto American vine rootstocks which are resistant to aphid attack.

The top wine producing countries include Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, the USA and Australia.

Three to four glasses of red wine a week is believed to have health benefits and can lower cholesterol, It may also possibly help fight cancer, nerve diseases and other ailments. These benefits are due to polyphenol antioxidants found in the skins of grapes.

Kew's collection of wild and cultivated grape vines can be found around the Pavilion Restaurant, next to the Beach.