Grape variety
Muscat
Muscat, Moscato, Muskateller: the grape family behind Moscato d’Asti and Beaumes-de-Venise. Origin, styles, Valais and what to eat with it.
- Colour
- Mostly white; the family also includes yellow, pink and near-black varieties
- Origin
- Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains: origin unclear; Muscat of Alexandria is its cross with the table grape Axina de Tres Bias
- Main regions
- Piedmont, southern France, Alsace, Sicily, Spain, Greece, South Africa, Australia; in Switzerland about 40 hectares, mostly in Valais
- Typical aromas
- Fresh grapes, orange blossom, rose, citrus peel, honey; dry to sweet, still to sparkling
- Classic pairing
- Moscato d’Asti with fruit tarts, dry Muscat with asparagus, Beaumes-de-Venise with melon or blue cheese
- Synonyms
- Muskateller (D, A), Moscato Bianco (I), Muscat de Frontignan (F), Muscat Canelli (USA); Muscat of Alexandria: Zibibbo, Hanepoot
Muscat is less a single grape than a family. More than 200 varieties carry the name Muscat, Moscato, Moscatel or Muskateller in one language or another, from white through pink to near black, and by no means all of them are close relatives. What they share is a scent that smells of fresh grapes more clearly than any other variety. Terpenes are responsible, the same group of compounds that gives Gewürztraminer and Riesling their floral notes. The family supplies wine grapes, table grapes and raisins.
The most important members are Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains and Muscat of Alexandria. The first, with small berries, is Moscato Bianco in Italy, Muskateller in Germany and Austria and Muscat Canelli in California; where it comes from is unclear, with Greece and Italy both in the frame. The second, according to DNA analysis, is a natural cross between the first and the old table grape Axina de Tres Bias. It is called Zibibbo on Pantelleria, Hanepoot at the Cape and Moscatel in Spain. Muscat Ottonel, bred in the Loire valley in the nineteenth century and also grown in Alsace, has Chasselas as one of its parents.
Muscat makes wines so different that the family is hard to taste as a whole. Moscato d’Asti from Piedmont is gently sparkling, sweet and, at about 5 per cent alcohol, almost grape juice; Asti is its fully sparkling sister. Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise from the southern Rhône is a vin doux naturel: fermentation is stopped with neutral grape spirit, so the sugar stays. In Rutherglen, Australia, a red form of the grape, Muscat à Petits Grains Rouge, makes dark, fortified sweet wines, while in Alsace Muscat is dry and light, smelling of grapes and orange peel.
In Switzerland Muscat is a rarity: the federal statistics for 2025 count about 40 hectares of Muscat and Muskateller, most of it in Valais. Two different grapes grow there under the name Muscat, Muscat à petits grains and the Italian Moscato Giallo, called “Muscat du Pays” in Valais, as an Agroscope study using DNA tests showed. At the table dry Muscat suits the aperitif or asparagus, Moscato d’Asti fruit tarts and panettone, Beaumes-de-Venise melon or blue cheese. Serve sweet Muscats well chilled, and Moscato d’Asti young: its scent is its greatest asset.