Muscat of Alexandria

Muscat of Alexandria is one of the oldest and most widely travelled of the Muscat family, an intensely aromatic white grape grown all around the Mediterranean and beyond. Named for the Egyptian city where the Greeks and Romans are thought to have prized it, it carries a heady grapey, orange-blossom perfume with ripe peach, apricot and candied citrus, and is made in almost every style — bone-dry and floral, gently sweet, sun-dried into rich passito dessert wines, and fortified into golden vins doux naturels and liqueur Muscats. It goes by many names across its range: Zibibbo in Sicily, Moscatel de Alejandría or Moscatel de Setúbal on the Iberian peninsula, Hanepoot in South Africa and Gordo Blanco in Australia. Coarser and later-ripening than its noble cousin Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, it is the workhorse aromatic Muscat, a great table and drying grape as well as a wine grape.