Black Muscat

Black Muscat is also called Muscat Hamburg, and it was bred in England in the middle of the nineteenth century, which is not where anyone expects a Muscat to come from. It is a crossing of Schiava Grossa, the grape Germany calls Trollinger, with Muscat of Alexandria, and it was raised for the glasshouse table grape trade.

For most of its life that is what it has been. It is one of the most widely grown table grapes in the world, popular in eastern Europe, China and the Middle East, because the berries are large, dark and strongly perfumed. As a wine grape it is a minor variety, and the vinifications that suit it are the sweet ones.

California makes the best known wine version, a deeply coloured sweet red dessert wine that smells of rose petal, lychee and blackcurrant, sometimes fortified. The perfume comes through the fermentation intact, which is unusual for a red, and the result is closer to a rose scented liqueur than to a table wine. Dry versions exist and are generally disappointing, because the aroma has nothing to sit on.