Muscat

Muscat is a diverse family of grapes used for a number of purposes and known since ancient times. It certainly has been cultivated around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea for some 3000 years and was used to make raisins. Pliny the Elder called it the grape of the bees and it is probable that it was the first grape employed to make wine. With such a long history, different sub-varieties began to emerge; it is said that there are some 200 different sub-varieties of Muscat (and you thought 60 different Lambrusco grape variants was a lot!)

Although there are so many different variants, most wines made from Muscat are sweet (from just a little to extremely sticky ones) and only in Alsace has there been any concerted effort to make dry whites from it (although others are trying it now). Muscat is famous for one of the legendary sweet wines that European royalty used to love a couple of centuries back - the South African superstar of yore, Constantia (see previous blog). Nowadays, the Australians have the lead on the really sticky stuff made from Muscat grapes, their Liqueur Muscats. Now as regards to those 200 subvarieties, I wonder how many I had tasted and listed for my Wine Century portfolio!