characteristic labrusca "slip-skin" which is thick but slides easily off between the fingers, leaving the pulp intact. The Catawba is a hardy vine that can handle the severe continental climate of the Eastern United States which includes hot, humid summers and cold winters. However, the vine is a late ripening variety, usually one to two weeks later than other labrusca varieties like Concord and Delaware which means that it is susceptible to harvest time hazards that can come in locations with short growing seasons before incremental winter weather sets in. The possible vinifera parentage also means that the Catawba has a higher susceptibility to various grape diseases, like powdery and downy mildew, than typical labrusca varieties. Pink Catawba In the 1940s, French-American viticulturalist Charles Fournier discovered a clonal mutation of Catawba in his Finger Lake vineyards that had less pigmentation in skin and could produce a lighter rosé wine than the usual Catawba variety. Fournier decided to use this variety, named Pink Catawba, in his New York sparkling wine from Gold Seal Vineyards. In 1950, this sparkling pink Catawba was the first non-California wine to win a gold medal at the wine tasting competition of the California State Fair. Wine regions The Catawba grape can still be found throughout the Midwest and Eastern United States, though its numbers are not very large due to the prevalence of more recent French-American hybrid varieties and increased plantings of Vitis vinifera in area suitable for its cultivation. The areas with the largest concentration of plantings are the Lake Erie and Finger Lakes wine region, but Catawba can also be found in Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington. Winemaking and wine styles In favorable locations that can accommodate the grape's late ripening, Catawba can produce a medium bodied wine with moderate acidity and enough sugars to produce off-dry to dry styles of wine. Though the grape is technically considered a "red wine" grape, Catawba actually produces rosés of varying shades of pink and white wines because the concentration of anthocyanins in the grapes is very low and they contribute little color during maceration. Similarly, the low amount of phenols from the skins also means that Catawba wines are very low in tannins and extract. Winemakers wishing to produce a darker Catawba can use thermovinification, with heat breaking down some of the coloring compounds from the skin, but that