Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains

Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is the finest and the oldest of the Muscat family, and probably one of the oldest cultivated wine grapes in the world. The name describes it exactly: white, with small berries. The small berry size is the reason for the quality, because it raises the ratio of skin to juice, and the skin is where the perfume lives.

That perfume is unmistakable and comes from a group of compounds called terpenes: orange blossom, rose, elderflower and, above all, the smell of the grape itself. It is one of the very few varieties whose wine actually tastes of fresh grapes. Across the world it hides under different names, including Moscato Bianco in Italy, Muskateller in Austria and Germany, Moscatel de Grano Menudo in Spain and Muscat de Frontignan in France.

It makes almost every kind of wine. Asti and Moscato d'Asti are lightly sparkling and low in alcohol. Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and Muscat de Rivesaltes are fortified. Rutherglen in Australia makes an intensely dark, treacly aged version from late picked fruit. Alsace and Austria make it bone dry, which is the hardest style to get right, because there is no sugar to carry the aroma.