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An early grape production center was established in Northwest Arkansas (Washington County) by Italian immigrants. The first 100 families of Italian immigrants settled in Sunnyside, AR, in the southeastern corner of the state, on a large plantation owned by Austin Corbin. Three years after their arrival, a double tragedy struck. Their benefactor, Corbin, died, and a malaria epidemic spread throughout the new colony. Over 100 people died in one year. These Italians from the mountainous climate of the Alps and Appenines could not acclimate to the conditions of the Eastern Arkansas swamps.

A Catholic priest, Father Bandini of New York, heard of the plight of the Italian immigrants and came to their rescue. He gathered the 20 remaining families and in the late 1800’s took them to an area in northwest Arkansas, where he purchased 700 acres of land and founded the town of Tontitown. These people soon found that 'Concord' juice grapes as well as hardy wine grapes thrived in this area and provided excellent quality juice.

Welch Foods learned of this group of grape growers and in 1922 built a Concord juice plant in Springdale. By 1992, this plant had a juice storage capacity of 1.9 million gallons. It was sold to Ozark Valley Products then bought by Pappas Foods, International, which continues to process grape juice as well as other fruit juice products.

Early wineries were established in the Tontitown area, but none of these are operating today. However, wine grapes are still produced in Northwest Arkansas and shipped to the Altus wineries.

Concord Grapes Dr. Morris and his research team have devoted over 36 years of research to studying factors affecting Concord grapes grown in Arkansas. The research was supported to a major extent by the members of the National Grape Cooperative (Welch’s Foods, #2 South Portage Street, Westfield, NY 14787).

General guidelines for establishing a successful Concord grape vineyard have been developed. These include recommendations for

row spacing trellising systems production systems and methods such as drip irrigation Vineyard research has optimized Concord yield and quality based on factors such as pruning severity, training systems, shoot positioning, etc. Studies relating seed number, vine stress and maturity to berry development provided valuable information related to uneven ripening problems of Concord grapes. Most of these studies have taken a systems approach to examine the effects of various preharvest variables not only on yield but also on raw product composition and processed quality.

Initial research on Concord grape juice laid the groundwork for extensive studies on table and juice grapes presented in another section. Many articles in that section also deal with Concord grapes. In addition to production variables, the economics of Concord grape production was studied extensively. As conditions and the economy continue to change, this body of research will continue to be important.

Table and Juice Grapes Expanding markets or identifying new markets for table and juice grapes is of particular interest to the grape industry in Arkansas. A number of alternatives to meeting this need have been addressed by the UA Enology and Viticulture Program.

The popularity of juice blends prompted a study of the acceptability of blueberry and cranberry juices blended with Venus and Concord grape juices. The economic benefits of producing juices in small- to medium-sized wineries also were analyzed.