The muscat vine is not very vigorous in most soil types, especially sandy mixtures, and seems to prefer damp, deep soils. It also falls victim quite easily to any of several vine diseases. Normally early in budding, muscat may also suffer from Spring frosts. All things considered, muscat would not seem to be a grape that would be cultivated so widely as it is. The spectrum includes pale green, pale yellow, golden, pink, red, brown, and black berries.
Some vines produce fruit that can be different colored each vintage.
California had barely 100 acres of muscat blanc in 1961, over 400 by 1971. Since 1981, muscat blanc acreage has been fairly steady at 1,100 to 1,300 acres. Muscat orange, which has a distinct orange blossom aroma is grown on 135 acres. Muscat of Alexandria, which has much less distinctive aroma and flavor than the other muscat varieties, but thrives in warm growing areas, is planted to over 5,000 acres of California vineyard. It sets a very large crop of fruit that can get very sweet, but the flavor is merely grapey.