Vitis vinifera ‘Muscat of Alexandria’

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This may be justly considered as one of the very best grapes ever introduced into this country. It requires a higher degree of temperature to ripen than many others, and generally succeeds best in the pine stove. It may, nevertheless, be ripened very well in a lower temperature; but then it is necessary it should be forced early in the spring.’ [George Lindley – Orchard Guide p.216/1831].

‘Muscat of Alexandria is without doubt the finest and best grape in cultivation. It is a free grower and a reliable bearer. When well done, the broad-shouldered tapering bunches, consisting of large oval-shaped amber coloured berries, extending from fifteen inches to twenty inches in length, are everything that can be desired in a grape, solid bunches sometimes attaining to from four to six pounds in weight. The late Mr. William Pratt, when gardener to the Marquis of Bath, Longleat, Warminster, excelled in the cultivation of this grand grape. Four vines one in each corner filled one of three sections of the immense lantern-span roofed vinery, about two hundred and fifty feet long, thirty feet wide and of proportionate height; the vines were trained horizontally in a line with the front ventilators, rods being taken up the trellis at intervals of five feet. It took some years to get four vines to furnish the trellis in this large house with fruiting wood, but supernumeraries were planted at the same time as the four vines destined to fill the whole house, in order to yield crops of grapes during the first years, the bottom spurs as well as the vines themselves being removed as the permanent vines required more space, until the last supernumerary was discarded. In this way a full crop of grapes might be said to have been secured from the second year after planting.’ [Ward – The Book of the Grape p.36/1901].

‘It is this grape which furnishes the Muscatel raisins, imported in boxes from Spain. It was called Muscat Escholata by Daniel Money, a nurseryman and vine grower at Haverstock Hill, on the road to Hampstead, from his having named his place “Eschol Place,” in allusion to the brook Eschol, where the Israelite spies got the large bunch of grapes. The names Bowood Muscat, Tottenham Park Muscat, and Tynninghame Muscat arose from seedlings having been raised at these places, which have eventually proved to be merely seminal reproductions of the old variety.’ [Hogg – Fruit Manual p.398/1884].

Figured in Pomona Britannica [PB pl.LIII/1812], the illustration used here.

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues as ‘Muscat of Alexandria’ [Vines for Table Only no.2/1843]. ‘True raisin grape’ is written in brackets after the name in the 1845, 1850 and 1857 catalogues.

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