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.

This wine has been made using a centuries-old process of fortifying grape juice in order to produce a dessert-style wine. Ripe Muscat Blanc grapes, sourced from the acclaimed sweet wine producing area of Calitzdorp, are harvested at high sugar levels, 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.