Winemaker Toys with Sour Grape Cocktails, Food

A tart tonic of sour grape juice may be making its way into your glass -- not to mention your salad dressing, pan sauces and stews.

Long revered by European chefs for its earthy tartness -- and known as the zing in Dijon mustard -- verjus is the non-alcoholic, unfermented juice of sour grapes. It can be used instead of any acid and provide a base for cocktails as a stand-in for sour mix.

Jim Neal, who owns the Napa Valley grape-growing operation Fusion Foods and worked at Spago during the 1980s, has produced verjus (pronounced VER-joo) as a pantry staple for the culinary pantheon in America for 15 years. Though some specialty markets carry his verjus, it can be found most often in the kitchens of The French Laundry, Per Se, Spago, Gary Danko and Daniel Boulud, among other fine restaurants.

"Wolfgang Puck told me that as a kid in Austria he had verjus, but he told me they used red verjus, so I've been making that," Neal says of the Spago chef.

Neal believes he was the first producer to grow grapes for the sole purpose of making the tart tonic in the U.S. -- his Chariot Wines line came two years after his verjus was first produced. But soon, he'll be joined by the Kendall-Jackson winery based in Fulton.

In August, unripened chardonnay and pinot noir grapes were harvested from a Kendall-Jackson vineyard in Monterey to produce about 4,000 bottles of verjus to be sold in the spring at major retailers and supermarkets nationwide.

Justin Wangler, executive chef at Kendall-Jackson, started making his own verjus in the winery's tasting kitchen four years ago, before consulting with the winemaster and developing a version that is a little bit sweeter than most.

Wangler says he uses verjus in everything from sherbet to sangria -- "pretty much in everything just to balance out a lot of our sauces." Neal says verjus is found in the cuisine of every wine-making region as a frequent substitute for tart flavor or acid.

Many vintners harvest unripened grapes from vines in order to concentrate flavor into the grapes left behind from the wine harvest. The sour grapes often go to waste.

"A lot of vineyards, they either let them rot on the floor or throw them out," says Kevin McGee, a spokesman for Kendall-Jackson. "Rather than throw it out, we're putting it to a higher and better use."

Mindful of the best time to harvest and what types of grapes make the best verjus, Kendall-Jackson is launching its version as part of its bid to cater to foodies, along with a line of olive oil.

"The fruit we're putting into it is not something that's simply left over from grape cuttings," McGee says. "It does play into the locavore movement, it plays into the slow food movement and it plays into the increasing attitude of people liking fresher ingredients."