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 An old muscadine vine, April 1916

USDA Farmer Bulletin

 

Muscadine grapes, with their thick skins, are more resistant to drought, disease and insects compared to table grapes.

Muscadines have grown in the wild throughout the southeastern United States for a long, long time. Their habitat spreads from Florida, to eastern Texas, up to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Ref: Hickey et al., Agriculture 2019, 9, 131 

The First Superfruit of America

For thousands of years, Native Americans have wild-harvested and cultivated muscadine vines to enjoy the fresh fruit… They even preserved the grapes by allowing them to dry on the vine — America’s first raisins!
Later, pre-colonial explorers feasted on muscadines in the mid to late 1500s across the southeastern United States. Soon after, settlers began the art of making muscadine wine.
Years of breeding have led to many varieties of muscadines, with some better for fresh fruit consumption — and others better for juice and wine-making. Today, The University of Georgia operates the oldest muscadine grape breeding program in the country.

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.

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