Grapes: The Muscadine

In the southern states, where the conventional American hybrid and European grapes cannot be grown, the Muscadine grape (V. rotundifolia) is at least as important in the market and in local culture. Muscadines have a tan, green, or purple-black slipping skin that is tough and papery and never eaten; the berry is pulpy and cohesive and must be chewed. The aroma is greater than in the American hybrid grapes. Scuppernong is the best known variety and indeed is the oldest American grape variety on record, dating from the early eighteenth century. Other varieties have had far shorter lives, as private individuals are still engaged in breeding superior fruit and wine varieties of Muscadines.