Table Grapes

A table-grape lot is a quantity of bunches of a declared cultivar, trimmed and packed to a specification covering berry size, colour, and bunch weight. Cultivar drives almost everything the buyer cares about: berry size and shape, skin colour, seededness, texture, and how well the bunch holds together in transit. Seedless cultivars dominate much of the modern fresh trade, and the same seedless cultivars are frequently the ones dried into raisins, which is why a single vineyard block can serve either outlet.

Because the berry is non-climacteric, it draws sugar from the vine until the bunch is cut and not one moment longer. A bunch harvested before it has accumulated enough sugar will never become sweeter, and no ripening room, ethylene treatment, or holding period will change that. Harvest maturity for table grapes is therefore assessed on the vine, on sampled bunches, using sugar and acid balance together with berry colour and firmness.

Picking is done by hand, bunch by bunch, and much of the trimming and initial selection happens at the vine or at a field station rather than at a distant packhouse — the fruit is too easily damaged to justify extra handling steps. Bunches are cut, trimmed of undersized and defective berries, and moved into cooling quickly, because the stem framework begins to lose water and brown from the moment it is severed.

Table grapes are precooled promptly after picking and then held and shipped under an unbroken cold chain. Two things degrade in parallel: the berries soften and detach, and the stems dry, brown, and become brittle. Stem condition is the visible clock on a bunch — buyers read a green, pliable stem as a lot that has been handled well, and a dry brown one as a lot that has not.

Grey mould is the principal decay threat in stored and shipped grapes, and it spreads from berry to berry within a bunch. The trade addresses this with rapid cooling, careful trimming out of damaged berries, and packaging systems — including modified-atmosphere liners and sulphur dioxide-releasing pads in some markets — whose use and permitted residues are regulated jurisdictionally. Packaging also carries a mechanical job: it must hold the bunch still, because berry shatter is caused by movement.

Grading assesses the bunch as a whole and the berries on it. Berry size and uniformity, skin colour and its evenness across the bunch, berry firmness and attachment, and the freshness of the stem are all judged. Bunch weight and compactness matter for packing, and a bunch that is too loose or too straggly is trimmed or rejected regardless of berry quality.

• Berry shatter — berries detaching from the stem in transit
• Stem browning and desiccation — the clearest visual marker of an aged lot
• Grey mould and other decay spreading within the bunch
• Cracked and split berries, often entry points for decay
• Uneven colour development and undersized berries within a bunch
• Bruising and crush damage from handling and over-packing

Table grapes are overwhelmingly sold as fresh fruit for eating. The principal transformation pathway is drying: the same berries, dried in the sun or in dehydrators, become raisins, a storable commodity product with a completely different handling profile from the fresh bunch. Fruit that fails fresh-market grade on bunch presentation but is otherwise sound is a common feedstock for drying, and some is pressed for juice.

• Food — fresh bunches for the dessert trade
• Drying — raisins and other dried vine fruit
• Beverage — pressing of off-grade fruit into juice