Muscatel ( ) is a type of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

made from muscat grapes. The term is now normally used in the United States to refer to a fortified wine made from these grapes rather than just any wine made from these grapes. This fortified muscatel became popular in the United States when, at the end of

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

, in order to meet the large demand for wine, some poor strains of muscat grapes (used normally for table grapes or raisins) mixed with sugar and cheap brandy were used to produce what has since become infamous as a wino wine. This kind of fortified wine has, in the United States, damaged the reputation of all muscat-based wines and the term muscatel tends no longer to be used for these "better" wines in the United States. In other markets the term Muscatel, or Moscatel, refers to a wide range of sweet wines based on these grapes. In 16th-century Germany

elderflower ''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...

infused ''

Salvia sclarea ''Salvia sclarea'', the clary or clary sage, is a biennial or short-lived herbaceous perennial in the genus ''Salvia''. It is native to the northern Mediterranean Basin, along with some areas in north Africa and Central Asia. The plant has a len ...

'' was added to

Rhine wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhineland-Palatinat ...

s to make a more potent varietal that was called "Muscatel", giving the plant one of its common names "muscatel sage".Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs
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References

Fortified wine {{wine-stub

See also

References