Captain John Hopkins reported that Spanish missionaries in Florida were making muscadine wine in 1565. He described the land “so full of grapes…on the sand andon the green soil, on the hills as on the plains, as well as on every little shrub as also climbing towards the tops of tall cedars, that I think in all the world the like abundance is not to be found”.
Today, vineyards and wineries throughout the South plant specific cultivated varieties (cultivars) based on their size, yield, juice quality, harvest period, etc.