From the Living Museum
Winesap
- Origin
- United States, birthplace unrecorded (often placed in West Jersey); first described by William Coxe in 1817; widely grown by the mid-1800s
- Era
- Described 1817; older
- Type / use
- Dessert · Dual-purpose · Cider
From the ArchiveFilm
Watch its story
Equal to Any for Bottling
A short narrated history of Winesap, told through the archive illustrations of our apple collection.
Illustrations: Ellen Isham Schutt (1904) and Deborah Griscom Passmore (1903), USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, National Agricultural Library (public domain). Narrated with a synthetic voice.
Watch on YouTubeHistory & Stories
Dark red fruit with firm, crisp, spicy-aromatic flesh and excellent storage. Unique historical importance as one of the great dual-purpose and cider apples of 19th-century America; still common in older Eastern orchards. Productive but often biennial.
Folklore & Name
Early 19th-century American variety that became widely grown. Name of uncertain exact origin but classic dual-purpose and cider apple of the Eastern U.S. Still common in older orchards.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Winesap is an old American apple whose birthplace nobody recorded. The UK National Fruit Collection says simply that it originated in the U.S.A. and was first described in 1817 1. That first description came from William Coxe of New Jersey, who called it "one of our best cider fruits" and well liked for eating, with cider "vinous, clear, and strong; equal to any fruit liquor of our country for bottling." He added that it was "becoming the most favorite cider fruit in West Jersey" 2. Coxe planted a hundred trees on a windswept sandy knoll, and eight years later none had died 2.
S.A. Beach (1905) was blunt: "Nothing definite is known of the origin of Winesap." Many writers had placed it in West Jersey because of Coxe's remark, but Beach thought "such statements seem hardly warranted by the evidence" 3.
The competing accounts
- Many 19th-century writers, as reported by S.A. Beach 3: born in West Jersey, based on William Coxe's 1817 remark that it was becoming the favourite cider apple there 2.
- Beach, 1905 3: its origin is unknown; the West Jersey claim is not warranted by the evidence.
- UK National Fruit Collection 1: U.S.A.; first described in 1817.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): an American apple of the 1700s whose birthplace is unknown, with southern New Jersey a reasonable guess. It was already well established when Coxe wrote, and nobody earlier recorded it.
What we think: stories & traditions
A West Jersey apple? (theory) The idea that Winesap was born in southern New Jersey rests on Coxe's note that it was the favorite cider apple there in 1817 2. That makes New Jersey a reasonable guess, and Beach's caution makes it only a guess 3.
The name. "Wine" and "sap" together describe exactly what Coxe valued it for: a juice that made wine-like cider 2. That reading fits, though no early writer explains the name.
Sources
- UK National Fruit Collection, "Winesap." www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=6820&fruit=apple
- William Coxe, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees (Philadelphia: M. Carey and Son, 1817), "No. 89. Winesap," pp. 153–154. archive.org/details/viewofcultivatio00coxerich/page/153
- S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 1 (Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1905), "Winesap," pp. 374–376. archive.org/details/applesofnewyork01beaciala/page/374
Curious about Winesap?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.