Varietal Character
Muscadine
At home in the humidity of Florida, you yield more fruit than the an orange grove in December. Yes, you are quite an original; in fact, you are the original. Your family, Vitis Rotundifolia, were the first native Americans to yield wine. And the family name 'Rotunda-fullia' is so appropriate, with your plump clusters of fruit bearing greater resemblance to small apples than grape berries.
Appellations Growing Muscadine Grapes
Appellations producing the most Muscadine wines:
Muscadine Grape Details
(Scuppernong)
Known as the original American wine, Scuppernong is a high-yielding, sub-tropical grape grown in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and other southern states. The grape belongs to the sub-genus Muscadine, not the sub-genus Euvites, to which labrusca, vinifera, riparia and rupestris belong. Scuppernong is a very unsual grape. It grows in clusters, rather than in bunches, and its fruit resemble small plums, more so than grapes. A single vine can envelop more than an acre, and supply over a ton of fruit. It produces very distinctive, perfume-laden wines. Generally made sweet, they were once blended with Concord and Catawba, to make Virginia Dare, the most popular U.S. wine before Prohibition. Bunch varietals are very susceptible to disease and mildew in the humid southern states
