Muscadelle

Muscadelle is the third white grape of Bordeaux, permitted alongside Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc, and it is not a Muscat despite the name and the faintly grapey perfume that earned it. DNA work has shown no relationship. It is always a small part of a blend, rarely more than a few percent, and it is planted in Bordeaux in tiny quantities.

What it adds is aroma. It brings a floral, musky, slightly honeyed lift to a blend that Sémillon cannot supply and Sauvignon blanc supplies differently, and it is most useful in the sweet wines of Sauternes and Monbazillac. It is also prone to grey rot, which in a sweet wine region is a double edged trait: the same susceptibility that ruins a dry crop helps a botrytised one.

Its most famous wine is nowhere near Bordeaux. In Rutherglen, in north east Victoria, Muscadelle makes a fortified dessert wine from late picked and partly raisined fruit, aged for years in cask in a hot shed. It used to be sold as Tokay, and the name was changed to Topaque after an agreement with Hungary. It tastes of cold tea, toffee and malt, and it is one of Australia's great wines.