Re: Butchery of the English Language 101
According to Wikipedia, the "sour grapes" may have been improperly translated, and the fox really meant "unripe grapes."
Study of older versions of the fable suggest that "unripe" might be a more literal translation, the idea being that the fox would come back later to try in earnest. The word "unripe" may have been replaced with "sour" by the fable's Victorian translators since the word "unripe", in Victorian society, might have been interpreted as an innuendo suggesting an as-yet unripe woman.