I was at a restaurant in Chiang Rai recently when I came across the menu item, ‘Fish and Ships.’ Everyone at the table with me had a good laugh at this and all the other silly English errors we discovered on the menu. And I found myself recalling all the ridiculous wine descriptions I have come across in Asia over the years at various restaurants large and small, famous and not so famous.
What is the difference between Muscadelle and Muscadet grapes?
Muscadelle is a lackluster white wine grape commonly grown in the decidedly low rent Bordeaux district Entre-Deux-Mers and in the not so stylish unclassified growing regions of Eastern Europe. Basically, the most generous one can be in describing wines made from this grape is to say they are ‘vinous,’ which is to say that they possess the characteristics of wine. Put another way, the wine is bland. Muscadelle was in the past mistaken for a grape called Tokay in Australia, where it is used to make fortified dessert wines. Tokay in turn is a misnomer for Pinot Gris in Alsace. In California Muscadelle in coastal Sonoma County was for decades mistakenly thought to be Melon, which is one of the approved grape varieties of?Muscadet.
