Muscat Italy 307

Muscat Italy, clone ISV-V 307, is a premium, internationally certified clonal selection of the famous Italian table grape variety Italia, developed in cooperation with leading Italian institutes and mother-plant centers. The variety was created by the legendary Professor Alberto Pirovano in Rome in 1911, and released into wide production in the 1920s, through planned crossing of Bicane × Muscat Hamburg, Muscat de Hambourg. The elite clone ISV-V 307 was selected primarily to obtain more massive, yet naturally looser clusters that are more resistant to rot, with more uniform ripening and guaranteed healthy, virus-free planting material. Today, this variety is rightly considered the most important, most widespread, and most highly valued white Muscat table grape variety on the planet.

It is a fully self-fertile variety. The flower is morphologically hermaphroditic, properly developed and bisexual, with an exceptionally high level of self-pollination and excellent pollen germination. This ensures uniform and stable berry set within the cluster, without a tendency toward berry shatter and without the need for other companion varieties in the vineyard. It flowers medium-early.

The vine is exceptionally vigorous, with very strong growth and a fast-growing habit, producing thick, robust, light brown shoots that carry large, five-lobed, dark green leaves. It requires the mandatory installation of a strong and high training structure, including fixed posts and multi-row wires. It gives outstanding, record-breaking results exclusively on high training systems such as pergolas, arbors, tendones, and cordon systems, where its natural strength and large vegetative mass can fully express themselves. It produces regular, stable, and exceptionally abundant yields, and enters full bearing very early after planting grafted grapevines. It requires long pruning, leaving canes with 10 to 12 buds, because the lower, basal buds on the shoot are naturally less productive.

It belongs to the group of very late table grape varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it ripens late, at the end of September and during the first half of October.

Harvesting takes place during October, often successively in two passes. The fruit can remain on the vine for a very long time after full technological maturity without losing firmness; during this autumn hang time in the sun, the berries accumulate an exceptionally high sugar content, while their specific Muscat aroma becomes even more penetrating, intense, and pronounced.

It is characterized by outstanding long-term storage ability. In modern cold storage facilities and controlled conditions, it can be successfully kept for 2 to even 3 months while retaining full freshness and flesh firmness, making it the leading and most profitable white variety for sale during late autumn, New Year, and Christmas holidays. Due to its exceptionally firm flesh and elastic, resistant skin, it tolerates picking, rough mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport perfectly, without any risk of berry crushing in crates or detachment from the pedicel.

The cluster is exceptionally large, massive, attractive, and heavy, with an average weight of 600 to 900 g, while on the elite ISV-V 307 clone individual clusters can easily reach weights of over 1.5 kg. It is cylindrical-conical in shape, often with one or two noticeable lateral wings. The key advantage of clone 307 is that it forms a naturally looser and more airy cluster compared to the standard variety, leaving the berries room for maximum development and drastically reducing the risk of internal crushing and gray mold. The berry is very large to giant, over 25–30 mm long and weighing around 8–10 g, with an ovate-oval shape. The skin is firm, thick, yet smooth, initially pale green, turning a beautiful, luxurious golden-yellow to amber color on the sun-exposed side at full maturity, covered with a fine waxy bloom. The flesh is very firm, compact, fleshy, and recognizably crisp, typical of a firm-fleshed grape, and moderately juicy. The taste is luxurious, rich, and full, characterized by a perfect balance of high sweetness and a very strong, noble, and recognizable Muscat aroma, with fine notes of nutmeg and citrus.

It is moderately resistant to fungal diseases. It is susceptible to downy mildew, Plasmopara viticola, and powdery mildew, Uncinula necator. Thanks to the loose cluster structure of clone 307, it is significantly more resistant to gray mold, Botrytis cinerea, than standard Italia, but in humid and rainy autumns before harvest it still requires regular and timely preventive chemical protection. Its greatest biological drawback is poor resistance to low winter frosts, with winter buds suffering permanent damage already at temperatures of -14°C to -15°C. For this reason, vineyards must be established exclusively on warm, south-facing, elevated, sheltered, and well-sunlit vineyard sites.

The root system is exceptionally strong, deep, and branched. It uses moisture and nutrients from deeper soil layers very well, tolerating prolonged summer droughts and heat without difficulty, but it requires deep, permeable, lighter, warm, and fertile soils.

Our grafted grapevine plants are produced on highly compatible, certified rootstocks: Kober 5BB, Berlandieri x Riparia Kober 5BB, and its selected clones. This rootstock achieves a perfect and long-lasting anatomical graft union with Muscat Italy, ideally controls its vigor, and provides outstanding adaptability to calcareous, heavier, and skeletal soils with a high content of active lime in the soil.