Sops of Wine

Some apples are innately big or small, but also apples can mature at different sizes depending on thinning or on growing conditions. 

However, the long thin stems on today's pretty, red-blushed treat suggest that Sops in Wine never gets very large. That stem could not support a large heavy fruit.

The apple (on the small end of medium-sized) is ribbed and oblate. The crimson blush, though saturated in spots, is mostly streaky, over a pale green yellow.

Lenticel dots are tiny and light tan in the blush, nearly invisible elsewhere.

Sops of Wine

This breaking-crisp apple has fine-grained white flesh, yellow-tinted, that bears delicate flavors in a mild sweet-tart balance. It is reasonably juicy.

The initial presentation has some floral notes, but the finish includes a light savory quality that one might expect based on the apple's name.

Sandwiched between, weakly, is something a little fuller and creamier, a short step on the way to what might be vanilla or banana. 

There is also a flavor that is a bit like toasted grain—or perhaps that is just the transition from floral to savory.

Everything is mild and attenuated.

Despite a decent, if delicate, crunch, there is not a lot to this old variety.

Or, Sops in Wine

A winesop is a piece or crust of bread soaked in wine, or a kind of cake made with wine. (This web page excerpts a recipe for the latter.)

Several sources, however, say the name for this variety refers to red spots in the flesh of the apple (I found none), or the streaks of blush.

Spotless

The National Fruit Collection (UK) says the name "Sops in Wine" is preferred. (Perhaps Sops of is an Americanism.)

Orange Pippin says either name "appears to have been a name used for any old English apple which had a red-stained flesh." However, the USDA watercolors reproduced there do not depict red-fleshed apples.

Scott Farm, which grew my samples, is neutral on the drops or streaks, saying only that Sops of Wine is "similar to Hubbardston and is excellent for cooking or cider-making."

Everyone seems to agree that this is an antique British variety.

Winesop is an older name for the excellent, savory Winesap.