Moscato d'Asti Sparkling Wine

Video Transcript

"Hi! I am Mark Middlebrook and I am here in the Paul Marcus Wines cellar. And, in this segment I am going to talk about Moscato d'Asti, the dessert wine that goes with everything. Moscato d'Asti is a DOCG in Italy. That is a named style of wine. The name of the wine style, Moscato d'Asti, refers to the grape variety and the town near where the grapes are grown to make this kind of wine. So, Moscato is the Italian name for Muscat and Asti is the town southeast of Turin, Torino. So, Moscato d'Asti just means Muscat grown near Asti. But, the particular style of wine is made bubbly into a level of bubbliness that the Italians call frizzante. We might call fizzy. In Italy, they make a distinction between fizzy wines, frizzante wines, and fully sparkling wines, or spumante wines. So, you get a little bit lighter degree of bubbliness in this, but still plenty lively in the glass as you can see. By the way, I serve it, sometimes I serve it in a flute but it also works perfectly well in a regular white wine glass. The distinguishing characteristics of Moscato is a real floral, I often think orange blossom aroma to it. Very bubbly and refreshing on the palate. Quite low in alcohol, only five or six percent, which is less than half the alcohol level of most regular table wines. And, a real, it is sweet but it is not cloyingly sweet. It it just sweet enough to have after a meal by itself, or with desserts. It works well with lighter desserts and with cheeses. Particularly Gorgonzola Dolce. And, it works well even with chocolate and more dense desserts. I think that acidity in the Moscato really cuts through the richness of the desserts. So, I pretty much always keep one of these guys cold in my fridge because it is a great thing to break out after a meal and either drink by itself or again with whatever dessert you are having."