Muscadine history extends back to 1524 in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Valley, when French explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano discovered the Scuppernong grape, a bronze variety of Muscadine. Recorded as “The Big White Grape,” the Scuppernong was the first grape to be cultivated in the U.S. and comes from the oldest vine in our nation, North Carolina’s 400 year old Mother Vine. All Muscadine varieties range from bronze to dark purple to black in color.

Origin

Muscadines grapes, (Vitis rotundifolia, or alternatively, Muscadiniana rotundifolia) are often referred to as scuppernongs. Muscadine is native to the Southeastern United States and has been cultured for more than 400 years. Native Americans preserved muscadines as dried fruit long before the Europeans inhabited this continent. As early as 1565, Captain John Hawkins reported that the Spanish settlements in Florida made large quantities of muscadine wine. For much of the history of the crop, varieties were simply selections from the wild. The first recognized muscadine cultivar was a bronze selection, found before 1760 by Isaac Alexander in Tyrrell County, NC. It was first known as the ‘Big White Grape’, and was later named ‘Scuppernong’ after the area in which it was found. With time, the name scuppernong became generic with all bronze muscadines, regardless of actual variety name. However, this is incorrect nomenclature, since ‘Scuppernong’ is only one of many cultivars of muscadine grapes. Bullis and its variants (bullace, bullet grape, bull grape) are very old names for dark-fruited muscadines. Some authorities have written that the name “Bull” grape reflects comparison of the berries with cow or pigs eyes; or, alternatively, muscadines were called “Bullace” because of their resemblance to a European plum of the same name, and that Bullis, Bull and Bullet are all corruptions of the Bullace!

Nearly 100 years of breeding work has resulted in the release of many improved cultivars. ‘Carlos’, ‘Doreen’, ‘Nobel’, ‘Magnolia’, and ‘Nesbitt’ are some of the most important cultivated varieties in North Carolina.

source: www.ces.ncsu.edu