All About Muscat Wines

>> Thursday, January 13, 2011

Muscat is one of the oldest varieties of grapes in the world with almost a family of over 200 different varieties in its family known today. It is important to note the fact that the Muscat grapes are sweet and fruity with an excellent rich fragrance.

These grapes are used primarily used for table wines in Chile and even in the sweet sparkling wines in Italy and the sweet dessert wines in California. Some of the common varieties of the Muscat grapes have been explained below:

Muscat Blanc is one of the oldest forms of the Muscat grapes known for the concentrated grape flavors. It is used in the production of the sparkling wine Asti Spumante. During the production of Asti Spumante the grapes are crushed completely and they are kept cold in the tanks. On requirement, the juice along with the crushed grapes is heated and they are allowed to get fermented.

After this procedure the product that is the material which is allowed to get fermented is completely sealed in large tanks where the carbon dioxide is allowed to mix with the wine. After the wine reaches the perfect levels of the alcohol and the sugar levels the fermentation process is stopped by quickly cooling the wine. After this the exquisite wine is filtered, bottled and corked. Thus after this exquisite wine of Spumante is born.

The next variety of grape called as Moscato Giallo also referred as Goldmuskteller or Rosenmuskateller varieties is a quite similar version of the Muscat Blanc.

The next and one of the interesting varieties of the Muscat grapes is referred as Muscat Hamburger; it is a grape variety reserved for food pairing. Further it is also used for the purpose of the production of red wines in the Eastern European countries.

Muscat of Alexandria is used in the production of sherry and other liquors; it derives its origin dates back to the Egyptian period. These grapes possess low acid content and high sugar content, this tends to the production of a lower quality wine. Because of this feature of grapes these end up as grapes to be eaten as they are or as raisins.

Moskately are used for the production of the dessert wines and these grapes usually grow in cooler climates.

Orange Muscat is another variety of the Muscat grapes with the aroma of orange and they are used in the production of the dessert wines, they are used mainly used in California.

Properties of Muscat grapes:

There are a number of varieties of the Muscat grapes, the hues vary greatly from White, brown and some are almost black in color. The Muscat Blanc grape in spite of the name is not always white in color. Hence these grapes are used for a wide variety of production of a broad range of wines.

They are grown in the temperate climates of Australia, California, France, Greece, Italy and Spain and these grapes are harvested only when they are very ripe thus rendering exceptionally sweet grapes.

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