Sir Walter Raleigh's explorers, the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was "...so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them...in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found.

However, in 1585, Governor Ralph Lane, when describing North Carolina to Raleigh, stated: "We have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring rich and pleasant, grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain, nor Italy hath no greater...".

Isaac Alexander found it while hunting along the banks of a stream feeding into Scuppernong Lake in 1755; it is mentioned in the North Carolina official state toast.

Some cultivars, such as "Magnolia", "Carlos", and "Sterling" will survive north to Virginia and west to the Blue Ridge Mountains foothills.

Nonetheless, Muscadines have a high tolerance to diseases and pests; more than 100 years of breeding has resulted in several bronze cultivars, such as "Doreen" and "Triumph", in addition to the aforementioned "Carlos" and "Magnolia’".

Possibly[8] the oldest cultivated grapevine in the world is the 400-year-old scuppernong "Mother Vine" growing on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.