Muscadel is one of the hidden treasures of the wine world, with these sweet dessert wines delighting palates for centuries. Muscadel is one of the oldest grape varieties in South Africa, and is a variety that is capable of being made into delicious wine, as well as being served in its whole fruit state as table grapes. Sadly these wines dropped in popularity for many years, but there is a current resurgence of them, which we at Rustenberg are very excited about.

Planted in 1932 on the banks of the Nel’s river in the acclaimed sweet wine producing area of Calitzdorp, the single vineyard used to make this wine survived the many floods and droughts experienced in the area, diminishing in size over time. It was saved from being pulled out to make way for a peach orchard in 2020 and has been registered with the South African Old Vine Project.

This wine has been made using a centuries-old process of fortifying grape juice in order to produce a sweet dessert-style wine. Ripe grapes are harvested, crushed and allowed skin contact before being pressed and the juice fortified with neutral grape spirit without any fermentation. The grape spirit preserves the natural flavours and sugar of the juice while ensuring that no fermentation can take place in the wine. This very stable sweet wine can be aged for many decades under ideal cellaring conditions and will become richer and more concentrated over time.