🍇 Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
A small-berried muscat variety, from Greece according to VIVC; it gives aromatic sweet and sparkling wines.
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is a white grape with small berries and a muscat flavour. In Italian it is called Moscato bianco. The variety is grown both for wine and as a table grape.
The VIVC catalogue considers Greece the variety's homeland, and its parents are unknown. It has 370 synonyms: Moscato di Canelli, Muscat de Frontignan, Gelber Muskateller, Moschato aspro, Muscat de Samos, Tamianka and many more. VIVC also records that the variety has offspring. In Greece, Samos is among the EU designations, and Moschato Samou, meaning «Samos muscat», is among the variety's synonyms.
In Italian Piedmont it is used to make sparkling Asti: the rules of this appellation require at least 97% Moscato bianco. So Asti is made almost entirely from this variety.
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains also grows in Hungarian Tokaj. There it is called Sárgamuskotály, «yellow muscat», and it is one of the six varieties permitted for Tokaj wines, together with Furmint, Hárslevelű, Kabar, Kövérszőlő and Zéta.
Why it matters to you. «Moscato bianco», «Muscat blanc à petits grains», «Gelber Muskateller» and «Sárgamuskotály» are one variety. But the word «muscat» on its own does not necessarily mean this one: there are many muscat varieties, such as Muscat of Alexandria or Muscat Ottonel. A variety named on an EU wine means at least 85% of that variety. White wine is served at 4–10 °C and stored lying down, at 10–16 °C.
How it connects to Wine
🍇 Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains → kind of → 🍇 Grape varieties → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Part of
- 🍇 Grape varieties
- Origin
- 🗺️ Greek wine
- Where it grows
- 📍 Piedmont, 📍 Alsace, 📍 Languedoc, 📍 Samos, 📍 Crimea
- Main grape in
- Italy: 📜 Asti, 📍 Piedmont, 📜 Canelli, 📜 Moscato di Sorso-Sennori, 📜 Strevi, 📜 Loazzolo, 📜 Moscadello di Montalcino, 📜 Moscato di Trani, 📜 Noto, 📜 Siracusa, 📜 Moscato di Sardegna
France: 📜 Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, 📜 Clairette de Die, 📜 Muscat de Frontignan, 📜 Muscat de Rivesaltes, 📜 Muscat de Lunel, 📜 Muscat de Saint-Jean-de-Minervois, 📜 Muscat de Mireval, 📜 Muscat du Cap Corse, 📜 Crémant de Die
Greece: 📍 Samos, 📜 Muscat of Patras, 📜 Muscat of Rio Patras, 📜 Muscat of Kefalonia, 📜 Muscat of Rhodes
Austria: 📍 Styria
Croatia: 📜 Momjan Muscat - Related to
- 🍷 Asti, 🍷 Moscato d'Asti, 🍷 Clairette de Die, 🍷 Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise
- Wines made from it
- 🍷 Sparkling wine, 🍷 Fortified wine
- Offspring
- 🍇 Muscat of Alexandria, 🍇 Brachetto, 🍇 Morio-Muskat, 🍇 Aleatico, 🍇 Moscato Giallo, 🍇 Bouvier, 🍇 Muscat Fleur d'Oranger, 🍇 Muscat Précoce de Saumur, 🍇 Pécsi Szagos, 🍇 Moscato di Scanzo
- Similar and different
- 🍇 Chasselas
Frequently asked questions
Where does Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains come from?
The VIVC catalogue gives Greece; the variety's parents are unknown.
What other names does this variety have?
Moscato bianco, Muscat de Frontignan, Gelber Muskateller, Sárgamuskotály — VIVC lists 370 synonyms in all.
Is it true that any muscat is the same variety?
No. There are many muscat varieties: Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is a separate small-berried variety, while Muscat of Alexandria or Muscat Ottonel are others.
Which variety is Asti made from?
From Moscato bianco, that is Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains: it has to make up at least 97%.
Does it grow in Tokaj?
Yes, under the name Sárgamuskotály it is one of the six varieties permitted for Tokaj wines.
What to read next
- 🗺️ Greek wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grape varieties, appellations.
- 📍 Styria — Steep green hills in the south with Sauvignon Blanc.
- 🍇 Chasselas — A white grape for wine and the table; Switzerland's most widely planted white variety.
- 📍 Crimea — A peninsula that is part of Ukraine, known for fortified, dessert and sparkling wines.
- 🍷 Moscato d'Asti — A sweet, lightly sparkling Muscat wine from Piedmont, very light.
Similar
🍇 Clairette · 🍇 Malvasia di Casorzo · 🍇 Muscat Ottonel · 🍇 Centorotolli · 🍇 Malvasia di Candia Aromatica · 🍇 Romeiko
Sources
- VIVC (Vitis International Variety Catalogue): passport Muscat à Petits Grains Blancs
- MASAF: Elenco dei vini DOP e IGP italiani e disciplinari di produzione (Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Asti)
- Tokaj PDO product specification (termékleírás), version 10a — Tokaji Borvidék Hegyközségi Tanácsa
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33, Art. 49–50 (vintage year, wine grape varieties on the label)
- Simons C.T. Left out in the cold: Serving wines chilled. Temperature, 2019
- Wikipedia (en): Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains