The Red Misket, or Misket Cherven as it is officially called, is a grape variety that is particularly widespread in the south of Bulgaria, where it covers over 6,000 hectares of vineyards. The name “Red Misket” is misleading because the grape variety is actually mainly used to produce white wines. It gets its name because of the very rosé or pink tint of the berry skin. The Misket Rozov with its very pink berry skin and the Misket Byal with a distinctly white berry skin are mutations of the Red Misket. The hard and thin-skinned berries in the quite compact clusters are quite resistant to putrefactive diseases despite their thin-skinned berry skin, but the Red Misket is susceptible to powdery mildew and downy mildew. The late-ripening variety is vigorous and produces good yields, and is very resistant to the cold temperatures that can sometimes occur. The Red Misket produces delicately fragrant, rather neutral and quite light white wines. In some regions it is made as a pure variety, but because of its low acidity it is usually used as a blending partner, especially for the much crunchier Dimyat variety. There are no known occurrences of the Red Misket outside Bulgaria.
This grape variety is also known by the name of:
Karlovski Misket, Misket Tcherven, Sinja Temenuga
