Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is a white wine grape of the Muscat family, named for its small berries and tight clusters. It is considered one of the oldest grape varieties still in cultivation, and its intense aroma makes it central to sweet fortified wines, sparkling wines and aromatic dry whites in France, Italy, Greece and Alsace.
History
The origins of this grape lie in the eastern Mediterranean, although no single document establishes them with precision. Ampelographers have linked it to the grape the ancient Greeks called anathelicon moschaton and to the apiane vines planted by the Romans. According to the traditional explanation, the Latin name refers to the fondness of insects, especially bees (Latin apis), for the flesh of the berries.
Its arrival in western Europe is usually credited to the Greeks, who probably brought it to France through their trading port at Marseille. Later, the Romans spread it across the Narbonne region during the conquest of Gaul. By the time of Charlemagne, Frontignan was a major export centre for the grape, and plantings are recorded in Germany by the twelfth century. By the sixteenth century it had become a popular planting in Alsace.
From these centres it travelled further. It was introduced to South Africa in the eighteenth century and became the mainstay of the famous Constantia dessert wine, although the vines are believed to have come from Frontignan. In Italy it is now the most widely planted member of the Muscat family, known as Moscato Bianco, and it is regarded as the oldest known variety grown in Piedmont. Its long dispersal has also produced a large number of local synonyms, which makes tracing its history with full certainty difficult.
Culture
In France, the grape plays an important role in the vins doux naturels of the Frontignan area, such as Banyuls, Rivesaltes, Grand Roussillon, Côtes d'Agly and Saint-Jean-de-Minervois. It is usually blended with Grenache blanc and Muscat of Alexandria. In the Rhône Valley it is the main grape of Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, and it is blended with Clairette in the sparkling Clairette de Die. In Alsace, by contrast, it yields dry wines of striking aromatic intensity.
In Italy, Moscato Bianco is the main component of Asti and Moscato d'Asti, sweet and lightly sparkling wines that are widely enjoyed at the table and as an aperitif. It also appears in fortified dessert wines, in aromatised vermouths and in the semi-sparkling Frizzante, so its presence runs from the start of an Italian meal to its end.
In Greece the grape matters most on the island of Samos, where it produces a vin doux naturel, aromatic dry whites and a straw wine, and near Patras in the Peloponnese, where it makes another sweet fortified style. In recent years independent producers on Samos have begun to focus on dry and even sparkling styles. In Spain it is recommended in Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Navarra and La Rioja, and authorised in several other regions, such as Andalusia, where it is known as Moscatel Morisco. In the Balkans it goes by Temjanika, and in Hungary as Sárgamuskotály.
In the vineyard, it is a variety with low yields and a long growing season, budding early and ripening late. It is vulnerable to mildew, grape berry moth, leaf roll, odium and grey rot, so it needs careful management. In hot years some areas of France begin harvesting it in mid-August, and late harvests are made to exploit the high sugar and concentrated flavour of the most mature berries.
Legend and fact
Many descriptions repeat that the Latin name comes from the bees that devour the berries, and that the vine has survived unchanged since antiquity. That explanation is an etymological tradition rather than a documented fact. What is better established is the variety's presence in France and Germany during the Middle Ages. Its identification with Greek and Roman vines remains a hypothesis put forward by ampelographers.