Muscadine

Georgia has been my home state for more than 33 years now (it actually shocked me to say that). And, while the wine here has gotten much better, what Georgia has been known for historically is Muscadine wine, as well as a lot of other things like peaches (they grow more in South Carolina), peanuts (the world's second most despicable food trailing only peanut butter), and pecans. But, they just don't make wine out of any of those things. But, they do out of Muscadine.

For starters, Muscadine is not vitis vinifera as most warm weather wine grapes are. Instead, it is vitis rotundifolia [sic]. It loves heat, does not worry about cool nights, and thrives in high humidity. So, where  Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, which also loves heat, likes particularly dry growing seasons and thrives when there is significant diurnal temperature change, Muscadine just wants heat and humidity. Its skins are incredibly thick for a grape, it is extremely disease resistant and its vines provide shelter and food for local birds.

Oh yeah, some people also make wine out of it.

Despite being a red or black or gray grape, research has found that Muscadine likely does not contain resveratrol, so we don't get that benefit from drinking it. And, because winemakers who choose to grow Muscadine often choose other grapes that are more delicate (and tastier for wine), the Muscadine often gets picked when they have time and it is convenient. Often, the brix (measure of natural sugars) level is ridiculously high, so the grapes can be made into some combination of a high alcohol wine and a high residual sugar wine. There is little rhyme or reason, but it's easy and inexpensive to produce.

While there are exceptions, the resultant wine is ... well ... not appealing, at least not to me. Think Welch's grape juice loaded up with a few scoops of sugar and left in the can well past its expiration date.

In all seriousness, if this is your cup of tea, and if you're not a beer drinker, Muscadine wine will pair nicely with Georgia BBQ. The sweetness will serve well to cut through the thick sauce and add sweetness to the ribs, pork butt, or burnt ends.