Muscat of Alexandria

Muscat of Alexandria is the second most important of the muscat family, after muscat blanc à petits grains, and it is the coarser of the two. The berries are large, the skins thick, and the aroma is unmistakably grapey and floral but blunter, with more orange peel and less delicacy. It is very old, probably North African, and it tolerates real heat and drought.

That toughness gave it a wide and mostly unglamorous career. It is a major raisin grape, and it is the muscat sold as moscatel that fills much of the world's cheap sweet muscat. Spain grows it as moscatel de Alejandría for the fortified wines of Málaga and Valencia. Portugal makes Moscatel de Setúbal from it, aged for years on skins until it turns amber.

Two places make something finer. In Chile and Peru it is one of the pisco grapes. In South Africa it is hanepoot, and old bush vines in the Swartland give a dense sweet wine with real weight. Australia calls it lexia. Dry versions exist but tend to be flat, because the grape has the aroma of sweetness without the acidity to balance it.