moscatello

The Muscat grape family — one of the oldest cultivated grape varieties — gets its name from Italian moscatello, diminutive of moscato, from Late Latin muscus, 'musk.' The musky aroma of these grapes was their defining characteristic. But muscus itself came from Greek moskhos, which came from Persian mushk, which came from Sanskrit muṣká — meaning 'testicle.' The musk deer's scent gland, located near its groin, provided the original musk, and the Sanskrit word for its shape was anatomical.

Muscat grapes may have originated in the eastern Mediterranean or Persia. The ancient Greeks knew aromatic grapes they called anathelicon moschaton. By the Roman period, muscat-type grapes were grown across the Mediterranean. The Crusaders encountered sweet muscat wines in the Levant and brought the taste back to Europe, reinforcing demand for what was already an ancient variety.

Muscatel — the wine, as distinct from the grape — became associated with sweetness and affordability. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, sweet muscatel was a luxury. By the 19th and 20th centuries, mass-produced muscatel became cheap fortified wine — the drink of last resort for those who could afford nothing better. In the United States, muscatel developed a reputation as a skid row drink, the wine of the desperate.

The grape has been rehabilitated. Moscato d'Asti, Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, and Australian Rutherglen Muscat are now respected wines. But 'muscatel' in English still carries the stain of its 20th-century downfall. A grape variety with three thousand years of cultivation and a name that traces through five languages to a Sanskrit word for a body part — reduced to a punchline about cheap wine.