Varietal Character
New York Muscat
No one’s ever accused you of being shy, ever keen to attract attention with your pretty and blousy manner. It’s clear that you are a Muscat through and through, honoring the rest of the noble family with your true aromatic nature. Like the finest Muscat of all, your great grandma Petits Grains, you do have your temperamental side, at times refusing to bear your share of the fruit. But unlike granny PG you have a tolerance for the cold, a hardiness obviously inherited from your father’s side – those lowly native New Yorkers. Your dad’s hard-working ancestors do seem to be the skeletons in your closet. It’s a shame some people dwell on the lesser parts of your pedigree, failing to appreciate you for your own wonderful personality.
Appellations Growing New York Muscat Grapes
Appellations producing the most New York Muscat wines:
New York Muscat Grape Details
New York Muscat (aka. NY 12997)
Moderately winter hardy, this quality white wine grape, developed at Geneva, New York, from a cross of Muscat Hamburg with Ontario, has found a comfortable home in Eastern Canada’s cold-climate vineyards of Nova Scotia. In this province the cultivar has demonstrated its ability to produce excellent wines in the aromatic style reminiscent of the world’s best Muscat wines. The most obvious use for such an intense and sweetly-perfumed variety is in the making of sweet and dessert wines -- and ice wines made from New York Muscat rank among the very best sweet wines of the world. However, dry versions with excellent acidity are equally remarkable. Such wines are similar to Alsatian Muscat, at least those made from the superior Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains, rather than the less noble, but more popular Muscat Ottonel.
Despite a minor V. labrusca component in its parentage, wines from the grape display none of the unfavorable ‘foxy’ characteristics so criticized in other crosses involving the Native American species. For growers, one of the few drawbacks of the variety is its tendency to be a somewhat inconsistent and finicky yielder of loosely-bunched, pink-skinned berries.
Unfair to the quality of its wine, New York Muscat’s family ties seem to restrict its popular use in other (more vinifera-myopic) Canadian regions -- ones which could greatly benefit from such an obliging, quality wine producer.
