Is Moscato d'Asti the Sweet Wine Serious Wine People Won't Admit They Love?

Show Notes

Episode #224: Is Moscato d'Asti the Sweet Wine Serious Wine People Won't Admit They Love?  00:00

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KEY QUESTIONS

• What is Moscato d'Asti?
• What does Moscato d'Asti taste like?
• How sweet is Moscato d'Asti?
• Should you chill Moscato d'Asti?
• What is the difference between Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante?
• What food pairs well with Moscato d'Asti?
• Is Moscato d'Asti worth buying?

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Introduction 00:00

Episode Overview and First Thoughts on Moscato d’Asti 00:33
Hello to the Sip Happens Crew! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

If you're new to our podcast, here's what we do: Every week we buy wines under $25 with our own money, taste them, and give you our brutally honest opinion on whether they're worth buying. Nobody pays us to review specific wines, we don't accept free bottles from wineries, and we're not afraid to call out a bad wine when we taste one. Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining - so if that sounds like your vibe, welcome to our tribe of wine lovers.

Once again, the name for the tribe this week cames from Ryan aka rjfergy cooks on the instagram, and if you have tribe names you’re dying to share with us, send them our way and we’ll ask you if you want to be on the pod if you have not been on yet. 

Alright, we’re staying in Italy for another week, Carmela, but this time around, we are tasting and reviewing a wine we have never done before, and a style of wine that we rarely ever review, and that is sweet wine, and I don’t mean dessert wines, but what I mean is wine that is sweet as opposed to dry. We are also going to review a Costco Kirkland wine in this episode, so this episode is like a combination of an Italian Wine Adventure, a Costco Kirkland Signature Wine Challenge, and a regular episode on a new wine. It’s so crazy!

So the wine we are talking about today is Moscato d’Asti, and we will go into some depth on it in a bit, and we have two Moscato d’Asti wines to drink today,  but the first thing I wanted to talk about was just sweet wine in general, because it is something we rarely drink in life and on the podcast, but it is very popular with many people, and super unpopular with others. For me, personally, I avoid it because it is not good for things like my blood sugar, as opposed to a dry wine which can have no sugar or almost no residual sugar and is a better option than beer. But, I know for you, Carmela, you often talk about just getting tired of sweet wines quickly.

So, let’s dig into sweet wine a little more, and some of the science behind why people like it. Here’s the funny thing about sweet wines, at least in America. When people are asked in surveys if they like sweet wines, they often answer no. And, my guess is that if you asked your family and friends, most of them would probably say the same. The truth is their answer can really depend on their relationship with wine, which sounds serious, but is not. People who say they are casual drinkers tend to say they prefer wines that are smooth, fruity, and sweet. Experienced wine drinkers, or what we may call “connoisseurs” of wine, or at least those who aim to be more serious about wine, tend to say they prefer dry and tannic wines. New wine drinkers are also much more likely to say they prefer fruity and semi-sweet wines than dry or tannic wines. 

I tried to get some sales data, and that proved to be difficult, so while it is really hard to find clear data on what people buy and don’t buy in terms of volume, what I can tell you is that some of the biggest selling wines in the US are wines that are on the sweeter side. 

In order to classify a wine on the sweetness continuum,, we need to look at the residual sugar in a wine, which you can sometimes find on wine labels or tech sheets, and you can sometimes also judge if a wine is sweet by alcohol levels, but that is not always a reliable thing unless the wine has very low alcohol. The tendency is that wines higher in sugar tend to be lower in alcohol because less of the sugar is converted into alcohol, so wines below 11% alcohol are usually on the sweet side, but, again, that is not a hard and fast rule. 

Here is how dryness and sweetness of wine tends to break down, although there are different scales. 

• Bone-dry 0-3 g/L (grams of residual sugar by liter)
• Dry 4-10 g/l, but to me that is a very wide range
• Off-dry 10-18 g/l
• Semi-sweet 18-45 g/l
• Sweet 45+

And, remember that everything gets thrown off in sparkling wines because Brut is bone-dry in sparkling, and dry and extra dry actually mean slightly sweet, but don’t ask me why. And, for one more reference point, a Coca-Cola is about 110 grams of sugar per liter, and orange juice is about the same. 

With that in mind if we look at some of the most popular wines in the US, we can see where their residual sugar actually lies. 

• Barefoot Chardonnay (top selling table wine in the US in 2024): 8 g/L
• Barefoot Pink Pinot Grigio: 11 g/L, labeled "extra dry style"
• Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay: (top 20 brand by volume) about 9 g/L
• Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon: (top selling imported table wine brand in the US) 10 g/L 
• Yellow Tail Shiraz  12 g/L
• 19 Crimes Pinot Noir: 10 g/L 
• Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon: 5 g/L
• Meiomi Pinot Noir: (claims to be the top selling Pinot Noir in the US) about 20 g/L
• Apothic Red 15 g/l
• Ménage à Trois Red 12 g/L

So while most of those hover in the dry-ish region, they are at the upper end, and I think that is by design, and we’ll talk about that in a minute. Some other wines that are very popular and high in sugar include

• Beringer White Zinfandel: 32 g/L
• Barefoot Moscato: 73 g/L
• Stella Rosa Red: ~100 g/L
• Franzia (the most popular wine by volume in the US) Chillable red 54 g/l, Sunset Blush 34 g/L

I should also mention that Prosecco, which has taken the world by storm, and the US in particular, is actually in the extra dry or dry range, which again for sparkling actually means semi-sweetsweet, and that is why I do not drink it unless it is brut. For some numbers:

• La Marca Prosecco: 18 g/L
• La Marca Prosecco Rosé: 18 g/L
• Ruffino Prosecco: 15 g/L
• Ruffino Prosecco Rosé: 16 g/L
• Mionetto Prestige Brut: 10 g/L

So, first things first. Sweet wines are popular, and in fact Moscato is the 5th most popular varietal by volume in the US. Ignoring sweet wine is not the right thing to do! The reason some people gravitate towards sweet wine has as much to do with genes and evolution as anything. As a species, humans are drawn to sweet because that means a lot of calories, and that is good from an evolutionary standpoint. When food is hard to come by, sweet means more energy from a food. And, a lot of people start their wine journey with sweeter wines, and so that becomes their expectation of wine moving forward. And, if you want to cocktail a wine, sometimes sweet is what matters. Like a lot of cocktails are sweet. Moreover, some people are just sensitive to things like tannin, and they find that tannin is a just an unpleasant sensation, and sweet wines tend to have no tannin.

The reason that “experienced” wine drinkers often don’t like sweet wine is, for one, they are associated with lower quality and cheaper wines, so there is a snob angle there for sure. For many, only dry red wines are truly serious wines, which is a little silly, but is a commonly held belief. Sugar is often added to mask poor quality in grapes. Sweet wines, by nature, are also low in acidity, and acidity is key for pairing with most foods, and so, for me for instance, sweet wines just mess with food too much, but are good for cocktailing. From a biology standpoint, many people become less and less attracted to sweetness over time, and start to gravitate more toward bitter tastes. All of this falls apart, however, when you get to the big dessert wines like Port and Sauternes, which are super sweet and considered sophisticated.

So, look, here is what we say. You do you. We are not here to yuck your yum, and if you like things on the sweet side, then who are we to say that is good or bad? What we want to do is recognize the popularity of a sweet wine like Moscato, and we want to judge for ourselves what we think, and then you decide, based on your preferences and your history with us, if you agree with us or not. And if you disagree, we are happy with that - we just want you to use us as a reference point, and that may be because you agree with us or you disagree with us. And we are good not matter what.

And, I also want to say that sweet wines tend to do really well with spicy foods, so we also can’t just say that dry wines are better with food, because it depends on the food, and in some cuisines, like Indian and Thai and Chinese, the sweetness can be the perfect match.

So, we have two Moscato d’Asti wines to drink and rate and see what food goes with them, including the Costco Kirkland version, and we’ll let you know if we would buy them again, and we are also going to go into more detail around Moscato and its history and all of that fun stuff

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and know that we buy all of the wine we taste and review every week so that we can give you real and honest reviews. If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a five star rating and review so we can grow listeners.

We also love to hear from you and we always respond so you can follow us on Instagram and Bluesky at thewinepairpodcast. You can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and you can also send us a note at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and let us know about wines your want us to review or just shoot the breeze, we love chatting it up.

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us - and this week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who is either a fan of sweeter wines or has shied away from them because they think they are just cheap plonk because this episode may change their minds!


Topic: WTF is Moscato d’Asti? 14:28

Alright, Carmela, it’s time to find out just what the eff Moscato d’Asti is all about, shall we?

The first thing we should mention is that while there are a lot of wines called Muscat or Moscato, the wine we are specifically talking about comes from, as you can guess by the name, the Asti province of Italy which is in the Piedmont region and very close to Turin or Torino where they actually hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006. Moscato d’Asti is primarily made in the northwestern part of the province, although the official production zone does include a couple of neighboring provinces called Alessandria and Cuneo, and the area of production is actually decently large at almost 25k acres. For a little brain box fodder, the main production areas are Asti Langa and Monferrato.

For a bit more clarity, Muscat is actually a large family of grapes with about 200 different varieties. Moscato Bianco and Muscat Blanc, or more properly called Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, are the same grape. In the US and France, the wine is known as Muscat, in Italy as Moscato, in Spain and Portugal as Moscatel, and in Germany and Austria as Muskateller. However, when you see Moscato on the label, it typically refers to the wine style which is fruity, sweet, and low in alcohol. So, all Moscato is Muscat, but not all Muscat is Moscato.

The history of Moscato d'Asti  is long, covering many thousands of years. The Moscato Bianco grape is considered one of the oldest domesticated varieties in the world, going all the way back to Ancient Greece. It was likely introduced to Italy through Greek trading routes. The Ancient Romans loved the grape, although they called it apiana from the Latin word apis which means bee, and the name comes from the fact that its honey aroma was famous for attracting bees.

In Piedmont, evidence of the grape dates back to at least the 14th century. The Codex Astensis, one of my favorite books, ha ha, which is a medieval catalog of documents in Asti, mentions families in the territory of Canelli who were known as "Muscati,” and it was a common custom to  attribute last names to families based on what they did, and in winemaking, by the vines they grew on their land. By the 16th century, growers in the Langhe were legally required to plant a certain proportion of Moscato in their vineyards. So this was a popular grape.

The science behind the wine we recognize today came around 1606 when Giovanni Battista Croce, who was a jeweler to the Duke of Savoy, wrote a scientific treatise that codified the complex process of making sweet, aromatic Moscato wine. That method remained largely unchanged until 1865 when Carlo Gancia, after studying in Champagne, France, returned to Canelli to produce the first Italian sparkling wine using Moscato grapes that was originally called "Moscato Champagne," and it laid the groundwork for the region's sparkling wine industry.

Then, in 1895, an enologist from Piedmont named Frederico Martinotti invented what eventually became known as the Charmat method or tank method of making sparkling wine, which Prosecco uses today, in which the secondary fermentation takes place in a pressurized tank called an autoclave. Note that there was a dude named Eugène Charmat who refined the method in 1907 and that’s why it is called the Charmat method, and not the Autoclave method, although they are the same thing, and the method is also sometimes called the Martinotti method or Cuve Close. But that’s a lot.

The adoption of refrigeration also allowed winemakers to stop fermentation by chilling the must to near-freezing temperatures, preserving the grape's natural sugars and primary aromas. That means more sweetness and less alcohol.

Traditionally, Moscato d'Asti was a wine winemakers made for themselves because its low alcohol content made it ok to drink for midday meals that would not hinder afternoon labor. Over time, it became a standard digestif used to cleanse the palate before dessert.

The wine was granted DOC status in 1967 and elevated to DOCG in 1993, and in 2023, the historic core zone of Canelli was elevated to its own independent DOCG, recognizing it as the historic cradle of the Moscato d’Asti

Moscato d'Asti experienced a massive global surge in popularity, often referred to as "Moscato Mania" in the 2000s. This was driven mainly in the U.S. market, where sales skyrocketed between 2010 and 2014, because the wine started to show up in hip-hop culture and in lyrics by artists such as Drake, Kanye West, Lil' Kim, and Nicki Minaj. More recently, the wine has seen explosive growth in Asian markets, particularly in China and South Korea, where it is increasingly favored for celebrations and, as we discussed, food pairings.

The wine is popular because, as we have mentioned, it is sweet and low in alcohol, in fact, it is required to be between 4.5% and 6.5% alcohol, and also because it is lightly sparkling or “frizzante.” It has to be made from 100% Moscato Bianco, and, of course, has to come from the specific area designated for Moscato d’Asti.

Moscato d’Asti is often considered a “gateway” wine, because it is sweet and affordable and is easy to like, and so particularly young drinkers may find their way into wine from a wine like Moscato.

And, we mentioned that it can be a great pairing with spicy dishes like Thai and Indian and Chinese, but it is also considered a good pairing with salty foods like blue cheese and potato chips, and a classic pairing is during Christmas time where it is traditionally served with Panettone which is originally from Milan, which is in Lombardy, but is close to Piedmont.

But that’s enough information. I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?


Moscato d’Ast Wines We Chose for This Episode 22:56

As usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $25, and they should be relatively easy to find because I bought one at Costco, obviously, and the other I bought from wine.com. Moscato d’Asti should be very easy to find, although do not confuse it with Asti Spumante, which is made from the Moscato grape, too, but is more like a classic sparkling wine than Moscato, similar in look to a Champagne-style wine. You should be able to find Moscato d’Asti basically anywhere, including groceries stores, 7-11, and probably your gas station if it sells alcohol. And, as we always say, just talk to your local wine merchant and he or she will be more than happy to find some for you. 

The first wine we are going to drink today is the 2025 Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti, and this one got an 8.3 from the Reverse Wine Snob and 88 from the Costco Wine Blog, both of which are buy ratings, so pretty good ratings. The RWS notes that, unlike most wines, this wine has nutrition information on the bottle, mostly because of the low alcohol content where it is required by law. But, you may not like what you see. 127 calories per 5 ounce glass and 20 grams of carbs/sugar, which translates to 133 grams of sugar per liter. There is no question this is a sweet wine. So, not on your keto plan.

This is, as it should be, a DOCG wine, so it’s totally authentic. I tried to find some information about who makes it, which can sometimes be easy or hard depending on how Costco is playing a wine. Sometimes they put the winemaker on the bottle, sometimes they do not. The best I could find on the interwebs is that it is imported by Ethica wines, and it is bottled in Acqui Terme by MPL S.p.A. which is owned by MOM Mondo del Vino S.p.A.

Other than that, there is not a whole lot to tell you about the wine that is for certain. I asked ChatGPT for some help, so you can take this information with a big grain of salt, but the company that makes the wine has a sparkling wine operation in Aqui Terme which is likely the one making this wine as a private label, and the winemaker there is Loris Gava and the assistant is Ylenia Dura, and so while we can’t confirm it 100%, one of those two is likely involved in some way. And, while we can’t find any definitive information on how much of this wine they sell, the rough estimate from ChatGPT, which is never wrong, is probably around 750k-1 million bottles per year. 

The next wine we are going to drink is the 2024 Saracco Moscato d'Asti, and this is a wine that you should not have any trouble finding, as I have seen it in a lot of stores. This wine got a Best Buy rating and a 93 from Wine Enthusiast, and, you won’t believe this, it got a 90 from James Suckling who can be counted on to give every wine he reviews a 90. 

I actually found a couple of tech sheets for this wine, but they don't give a ton of great information, so I will tell you what I could find out. The vineyard is in Castiglione Tinella, the soil is made of sand, silt, and limestone - so good for water stress - at 450 meters or about 1500 feet above sea level. It is 100% Moscato Bianco, and is 145 grams per liter of sugar. Holy smokes. 

The winery says after harvesting, the bunches are gently pressed to extract the most flavourful juice from the outermost part of the grapes. The must is kept in stainless steel containers at -3°C, where it can be kept for months. When there is market demand, it is then transferred
into autoclaves for temperature-controlled fermentation, microfiltered for purity and then bottled
to keep the freshness and flavours intact.

For both of these wines, and any Moscato d’Asti, you want to serve these wines cold, like fridge cold. The reason for that is really important because sweet wines will become super syrupy and cloying when they are warm. When cold, the wines feel crisp and the bubbles stay effervescent and light. 

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!

LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES

• https://www.reversewinesnob.com/kirkland-signature-moscato-d-asti/ 
• https://www.winesu.com/uploads/1/3/2/1/132126078/moscato.sell.sheet.1.pdf 
• https://paolosaracco.it/images/sk/saracco-moscato-en.pdf 

2025 Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti, 2024 Saracco Moscato d'Asti Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 30:11

Wine: Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti
Region: Italy, Asti
Year: 2025
Price: $8.49
Retailer: Costco
Alcohol: 5%
Grapes: Moscato Bianco
Professional Rating: RWS 8.3, CWB 88 Vivino

What we tasted and smelled in this Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti: 

• Color: Light vanilla color, khaki pants
• On the nose: Candle, pear, honey, citrus, pina colada, fruit juice, cinnamon, clove, orange citrus, soapy
• In the mouth: Doesn’t taste like it has any alcohol, canned peach, canned pear, super sweet fruit juice, Treetop apple juice, melon, almost no tartness, a gummy candy, Haribo  gummy bear, lemon Slurpee, put ice cubes in it

Food to pair with this Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti: Feels like a dessert. Hard to pair with food, even spicy food. Not great food wine. More like a liquor. Maybe pair with sherbet. Could be used like a lemon sorbet as a palate cleanser
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 5/10

Wine: Saracco Moscato d'Asti (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: Italy, Asti
Year: 2024
Price: $16.97
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 6%
Grapes: Moscato Bianco
Professional Rating: WE 93, JS 90 Vivino

What we tasted and smelled in this Saracco Moscato d'Asti: 

• Color: Tinge of green, inside of a lime, foamy
• On the nose: Lychee, tropical fruit, baking spice, not as sweet, peach, some yeast, lemon-filled doughnut
• In the mouth: Very sweet, lemony, citrus, orange, lemonade, lemon squares, Sprite, vanilla, has to be ice cold, put ice cubes in it

Food to pair with this Saracco Moscato d'Asti: Pairs better with food than the Costco, spicy food, Thai dishes, dessert
 

Saracco Moscato d'Asti Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 6/10

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Saracco Moscato d'Asti
• Joe: Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti

The Test: Did we nail the taste profiles expected from Moscato d’Asti?  44:46

• General 
  • Stone fruits like white peach, nectarine, and apricot. Citrus like meyer lemon, mandarin orange zest, and grapefruit. Florals like orange blossom, honeysuckle, and jasmine. Honey, sugary grapes, melon, lychee, passion fruit. Should be crisp and not syrupy. Frizzante or lightly sparkling. 
• Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti
  • Winery: With notes of honeysuckle and ripe peach, this beautiful golden white wine makes an excellent aperitif wine as well as a great pairing for both sweet and savory dishes.
  • CWB: Tons of citrus, green apple, peach and honey; it is very sweet, has a little effervescence to it, and some good body too.
  • RWS: Opens with lots of sweet, honey-soaked fruit aromas like citrus, peach, and a little tropical fruit.There’s a whole lot of sugar in here but plenty of acidity and the crisp, fine bubbles help offset it a bit and prevent it from tasting syrupy sweet. This is very well put together! Downright delicious even. It ends with a crisp, off-dry, long finish. This is lovely stuff!
• Saracco Moscato d'Asti
  • Winery: Straw yellow with greenish hues. Intense orange blossom, peach and thyme aromas. Intense, elegant and lingering on the palate. The sweet sensations are well-balanced with a pleasant acidity and fruity aromas typical of Muscat grapes.
  • WE: The wine captures pure sunshine, exhibiting pristine floral aromas and fresh stone fruit that flow seamlessly into a palate of remarkable clarity and definition. The effervescence carries the sweetness with grace and precision, demonstrating why this variety finds its highest expression in Asti. A masterclass in what makes Moscato d'Asti special, showing both power and delicacy in perfect harmony.
  • JS: A perfumed wine with orange blossoms, white peaches and nectarines. Light-bodied. Sweet and smooth on the palate, with fine bubbles, moderate acidity and a lean finish.

What is the verdict on Moscato d’Asti? 46:38
Not really for us, but a great wine for a dinner party. Very nice tasting, just not our cup of tea. An elegant sweet wine. We would not buy them but that’s because we don’t drink sweet wines. Great to sip on, great in the right situation like a palate cleanser or with dessert. A good wine. 

You may not think you light sweet wines, but we bet you actually might. First of all, a lot of the wines that are very popular have more sugar in them than you think. Second, and more important, is that Moscato d’Asti is pretty damn good so if you haven’t had it, or haven’t had it for a while, we suggest you check it again and see what yu think tnow


Wine in the news this week: Aluminum cans offer viable alternative to glass for wine packaging, study find 47:52

• https://www.packaginginsights.com/news/aluminum-wine-packaging-study.html 
• https://phys.org/news/2026-04-glass-dethroned-wine-packaging-unbox.html 
• https://www.vinetur.com/en/2025123094481/aluminium-cans-match-glass-in-preserving-wine-quality-study-finds-no-significant-difference-after-six-months.html 

Our wine in the news this week comes from a packaging industry trade publication called Packaging Insights, written by Libby Davis. Links are in the show notes as always, and her article is entitled "Aluminum cans offer viable alternative to glass for wine packaging, study finds.” And it answers the age old question: does it actually matter if your wine comes in a can or a bottle?

Wine snobs and purists will scoff, but the science is starting to say it doesn’t really matter

It turns out that researchers at the University of Florida took wine, put some of it in aluminum cans and some in glass bottles, and kept them side by side for six months. Then they tested things like color, aroma, flavor, acidity, alcohol, the chemical breakdown of the pigments, and more. What they found was that the cans performed comparably to the bottles, and that changes in the wine were the same in both packaging, and could be attributed to time and temperature.

The wine they tested was carbonated muscadine, which sounds like Moscato, and is a sweet grape and often made into sweet wine, but it is not. Muscadine is a North American grape that is genetically distinct from Moscato.

Anyway, this study was repeated more than once, another time with carbonated blueberry wine, and I cannot figure out why they don’t just use normal wines, but so be it, and they tested that wine in glass, aluminum, and plastic, and found no differences again.

In fact, for young white wines and rosés, a can might actually be slightly better than the bottle. The reason is that cans are completely airtight, so there is zero oxygen exposure during storage. So, although the studies didn’t show this exactly, air tight containers that don’t let light in are going to preserve wines much better. And, this is not dissimilar from screw caps which are nearly perfect when it comes to avoiding oxidation, unlike cork.

In a separate study from the University of Arkansas, lead researcher Renee Threlfall said the perception is that quality wine is in glass, but that that perception can change as new and innovative packaging for wine becomes available.

Plus, from our perspective, there are the added benefits of weight and cost vs. glass, so there’s that, too.

So, Carmela, the science is in. And although we have not had wine in a can for a while, we kind of like it. What do you say about this science backing up our feelings?


Listener Shoutouts 51:08
We have some fun listener shoutouts for this week, and we so appreciate when you reach out to use and tell us what you think, or what you are drinking, and so here are some shoutouts:

• Adam let us know he did try his older vintage Musar, but felt like its best days were behind it. It was a 1994, so that is pretty old, and if not stored really well, it is hard to keep a wine that long
• Timmy who sent some names and also schooled me on some pronunciations and shared his concern with Alsace Pinot Gris and knew we wouldn’t love it
• Christine, AKA tips2liveby, shared that since their trip to Italy, she has been really getting into Chianti and other Italian wine more
• East Idaho Foodies (IG) - Chianti, dogs, and went to Toronto to see Croatia in the World Cup
• Adrienne shared an awesome video on Instagram that really spoke to me - because it made fun of people who overshare and only order California Chard.
• Ted found a Sangiovese Bianco. Yes! White Sangiovese. Also has all of the Kirkland wines we are going to try
• Shekar from the Nalla reached out, was featured in an article called Drop the Riesling Reflex: Wine's $1.9 Trillion Blind Spot and covers how people from Asian countries, including India, are being ignored by the wine industry. Good stuff!  https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/319780?utm_source=email_dne&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=link_dne  

Wines coming up in future episodes in case you want to drink along with us 53:01

• Kirkland Bordeaux: 2023 Saint-Julien, 2023 Paulliac
• Verdejo: ​2024 Marques de Riscal Rueda Verdejo​, ​2024 Bodegas Vatan Nisia Old Vines Verdejo​
• Gigondas: ​2023 Crous St Martin Gigondas Les Espaliers​, ​2023 Notre Dame des Pallieres Gigondas Les Mourres​
• Vermentino: ​2022 Tommasi Poggio al Tufo Vermentino,​ ​2024 ColleMassari Melacce Vermentino​
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape: 2024 Costco Kirkland Chateauneuf-du-Pape, ​2023 Domaine du Vieux Lazaret Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 53:24

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. What is Moscato d'Asti?
A. Moscato d'Asti is a lightly sparkling, low-alcohol sweet white wine from Piedmont, Italy. It is made from Moscato Bianco and has DOCG status, which is Italy's top classification. In our tasting, both bottles were easy to find, very affordable, and clearly built for people who want something festive rather than serious and dry.

Q. What does Moscato d'Asti taste like?
A. It tastes like fruit juice, dessert, and perfume in the best possible way. We got pear, peach, apple juice, honey, citrus, orange blossom, lychee, and a little gummy-bear character. The Kirkland bottle leaned more toward peach, pear, and apple juice, while the Saracco showed more lemon, orange blossom, lemon square, lemon curd, and a slightly brighter edge.

Q. How sweet is Moscato d'Asti?
A. Very sweet. The Kirkland bottle had 133 grams of sugar per liter, and the Saracco was listed at 145 grams per liter. That sounds intense, and it is, but the low alcohol, tiny bubbles, and cool serving temperature keep it from feeling like straight syrup. If you drink sweet wine, it feels fun. If you do not, it will feel like a lot.

Q. Should you chill Moscato d'Asti?
A. Yes, absolutely. This is a wine that wants to be fridge-cold or even colder. When it warms up, the sweetness gets heavier and more syrupy. Joe and Carmela both kept coming back to the idea that this is the kind of wine you want very cold, almost like a dessert drink or a sparkling aperitif.

Q. What is the difference between Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante?
A. Moscato d'Asti is usually lower in alcohol and only lightly sparkling, while Asti Spumante is a more fully sparkling, more classic bubbly style. They come from the same broad area and the same grape family, but they do not drink the same. If you want something softer, sweeter, and less aggressively bubbly, Moscato d'Asti is the better match.

Q. What food pairs well with Moscato d'Asti?
A. Think dessert first: panettone, lemon sorbet, fruit tarts, sherbet, and other sweet finish-the-meal foods. It can also work with spicy foods because the sweetness cools the heat, so Thai food or pad Thai are fair game. We liked the idea of using it as the dessert itself, not just a drink beside dessert.

Q. Is Moscato d'Asti worth buying?
A. If you like sweet wine, yes, especially for celebrations or dessert parties. We did not rate either bottle as a buy by our scale, but both were charming, enjoyable, and very much what they were supposed to be. The Kirkland bottle was the better value, while the Saracco showed a little more brightness and complexity. If sweet wine is your thing, this category is worth exploring.

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RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE

• https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/1426/articles-2013_-asti.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0xXxwEGHrU
• https://knowledgenuts.com/2026/06/02/difference-between-moscato-and-moscato-d-asti/
• https://www.coppo.com/en/moscato-dasti-in-the-20th-century-a-global-success/
• https://www.decanter.com/sponsored/moscato-dasti-a-surprising-match-for-culinary-delights-from-the-east-539202/
• https://www.bevinars.com/2023/10/moscato-wine-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscat_(grape)
• https://www.thewinechef.com/blog/sweet-wines-smart-pairings-why-asti-docg-deserves-a-second-look
• https://www.coravin.com/blogs/community/what-is-moscato
• https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/apr/22/moscato-kanye-west-wine 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscato_d'Asti
• https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-304-muscat-blanc-a-petits-grains
• https://sanfranciscowineschool.com/blogs/blog/16222387-grape-variety-profile-muscat
• https://www.winewithseth.com/winewiki/moscato-bianco/
• https://italianwinecentral.com/denomination/asti-docg/
• https://www.kerinokeefe.com/rappers-delight/
• https://langhe.net/en/wines/docg-moscato-asti/
• https://www.gamberorossointernational.com/news/food-news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-italian-method/
• https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-make-sparkling-wine
• https://www.winealchemy.co.uk/cadgal-and-moscato-dasti-docg/
• https://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146000345/moscato-madness-the-dessert-wines-sweet-surge
• https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/06/27/196210549/MOSCATO
• https://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/07/30/rappers-love-moscato-but-does-moscato-love-rappers/
• https://vinepair.com/articles/hip-hop-wine-marketing/
• https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/06/top-10-songs-featuring-moscato/
• https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2026/03/moscato-dasti-fizz-soars-55-in-china-bucking-global-slump/
• https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/en/Italian-wine/Asti-DOCG-Moscato-Asti-market-guide-disciplinary/
• https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2025/01/10/consorzio-asti-docg-2024-bottling-exceeds-90-million-units-ricagno/
• https://wine-intelligence.com/blogs/wine-news-insights-wine-intelligence-trends-data-reports/asti-docg-reduces-yields-for-2025-to-safeguard-market-stability
• https://www.finedininglovers.com/explore/articles/how-pair-moscato-dasti-wine 

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Joe: 00:00
You may not think you like sweet wines, but we bet you actually might. First of all, a lot of the wines that are very popular today have more sugar in them than you think. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. And second, and more important, is that Moscato di Asti is pretty darn good. So if you haven't had it, or you haven't had it for a while, we suggest you check it out again and see what you think. Mm-hmm. And we'll tell you more in this episode. Okay. Hello to the Sip Happens crew, and welcome to the Wine Pair Podcast. I'm Joe, your Simolier of Reasonably Priced Wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela.

Carmela: 00:45
Hi there.

Joe: 00:46
And we are the Wine Pair.

Carmela: 00:47
It took me a minute because I'm still thinking about that great name.

Joe: 00:50
Well, hold on, we're gonna get there in a second. But if you're new to the podcast, here's what we do: every week we buy wines under $25 with our own money. We taste them and we give you our brutally honest opinion on whether they're worth buying, and nobody pays us to review specific wines. We don't accept free bottles from wineries, and we're not afraid to call out a bad wine when we taste one. And Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining. So if that sounds like your vibe, welcome to our tribe of wine lovers or sip happens crew. Whoa!

Carmela: 01:21
You just should hope, you should pray that Sip happens.

Joe: 01:24
Yes, and not the other stuff happens. But once again, the name for the tribe this week comes from Ryan, aka Ryan J. Fergie Cooks on the in the on the gram, the Instagram. And remember, if you have tribe names, you're dying to share with us, send them our way. And we'll ask you if you want to be on the pod if you have not been on yet. But Carmella. We are staying in Italy for another week.

Carmela: 01:47
What?

Joe: 01:48
This time around, we're tasting and reviewing a wine we have never done before, and a style of wine that we rarely ever review, and that is sweet wine.

Speaker 4: 01:57
Oh my goodness.

Joe: 01:58
And I don't mean dessert wines either.

Speaker 4: 02:00
Okay.

Joe: 02:00
What I mean is wine that is sweet as opposed to dry.

Speaker 4: 02:04
Okay.

Joe: 02:05
And we're also going to review a Costco Kirkland wine in this episode. So this episode is kind of like a combo. Oh my goodness. It's like a combo meal. It's a twofer.

Carmela: 02:12
It's a twofer.

Joe: 02:13
A three fur, maybe, because it's an Italian. Yeah, it's kind of an Italian wine adventure. It's kind of a Costco Kirkland signature. Virtual.

Carmela: 02:21
Yeah. A virtual Italian wine adventure, guys. A virtual Costco run challenge date night. Yeah, and a virtual what the f do you know I saw that somebody else treats their trips to Costco as date nights.

Joe: 02:35
We're not the only ones.

Carmela: 02:36
Do you think that a lot of people do?

Joe: 02:37
I you know what? I'm gonna do a survey. I think the next time we go to Costco, we interview people as they come in and we just say, Are you on a date?

Carmela: 02:44
Yeah, no, thank you. But I do think they might need to start doing sips and strolls within Costco.

Joe: 02:50
Okay, and then they're hosted by the Wine Pair Podcast. Maybe I like it. I like it.

Carmela: 02:54
They're doing that down on the waterfront in Seattle.

Joe: 02:56
I like it.

Carmela: 02:57
At the Pike Place Market, they're having sip and strolls. So I think Costco, sip and strolls. Can you imagine what people will buy if they're sipping and strolling and shopping?

Joe: 03:06
I can't imagine. Can we talk about the wine though? We can. Okay, so the wine we're talking about today happens. Okay. Slip happens. The wine that we're talking about today is Moscato D'Asti. And we'll go into some depth on it in a bit. And we have two Moscato di Osti wines to drink today. But the first thing I wanted to talk about was just sweet wine in general, because it's something that we rarely drink in life and on the podcast, but it is very popular. And many people love it. And it's also unpopular with people, and many people don't like it. Like for me personally, I avoid it because it's not good for things like my blood sugar, as opposed to dry wine, which can which can have almost no sugar in it. And so for me, it's a better option than those. But like for you, Carmela, I know you often talk about that sometimes sweet wines just in addition to the cal caloric intake, just make you feel a little bit tired sometimes. Tired of them.

Carmela: 03:56
Yeah. So you don't well, I mean, just alcohol in general makes me a little tired.

Joe: 04:00
True, true. They're not unique there, but true.

Carmela: 04:03
No. But yes, I just kind of think, ooh, this is delicious at first sip, and then sip happens. Yeah, and it's just too many sips, and I'm kind of tired.

Joe: 04:12
Exactly. And it, but but more sweet wine than other wines, I think. Of course. But let's dig into sweet wine a little more and some of the science behind why people like it. So here's the funny thing about sweet wines, Carmela, at least in America. When people are asked in surveys if they like sweet wines, they often answer no. And my guess is that if you asked your family and friends, most of them would probably say, no, I don't I like dry air wines. The truth is their answer can really depend on the relationship with wine, which sounds serious, but it's actually not that serious. People who say they're casual drinkers tend to say they prefer wines that are smooth and fruity and sweet. Oh. Experienced wine drinkers are what we may call connoisseurs, sometimes snobs, or at least those who aim to be more serious about wine tend to say they prefer dry and tannic wines.

Carmela: 04:57
Are you a snob?

Joe: 04:58
A little bit.

Carmela: 04:59
Yeah.

Joe: 04:59
And new wine drinkers are also much more likely to say they prefer fruity and semi-sweet wines than dry or tannic wines. Okay. Now I tried to get some sales data, and that proved to be a little bit difficult. But while it's really hard to find clear data on what people buy and don't buy in terms of volume, what I can tell you is that some of the biggest selling wines in the United States are wines that are on the sweeter side. Okay. Now, in order to classify a wine on this sweetness continuum, because it's a continuum, Carmela, we need to look at the residual sugar in a wine, which you can sometimes find on wine labels or tech sheets. And you can sometimes also tell by the alcohol level, but that's not always reliable. But the tendency is that lower alcohol wines, especially when they're below about 11%, tend to be on the sweeter side because less of the sugar has been converted into alcohol by yeast. But that's not a hard and fast rule. You can't just go by that because sometimes some wines that have higher alcohol also have higher sugar. Now, on the continuum, here's how it kind of breaks down. Bone dry is zero to three grams of residual sugar per liter, dry is four to ten grams, off-dry is ten to eighteen grams, semi-sweet is eighteen to forty five grams, and sweet is 45 plus. Now you don't have to memorize that, but I mean there's a break point at about 10 grams, and then a big break point over 45 grams. And then just remember that everything gets thrown off when we talk about sparkling wines because in sparkling wines, brute means bone dry, and dry actually means semi-sweet. Don't get confused, but that's the way it is. But it will come up a little bit later in the quiz. There's no quiz. There's no quiz.

Carmela: 06:36
Everybody just like hit pause.

Joe: 06:38
Yeah, they're like, oh, quiz? Sweats. They got like they're gonna have that dream tonight where they like couldn't get to class and they're getting lost in the dorm. Or they just push. Yeah. No, don't say that. I will say, everybody, too, we have um a new view. We've graduated. I wondered when you were gonna talk about our new view. Yeah, after many, many years in the basement, we have moved up. We have moved offices. Wow.

Carmela: 07:00
Not location. Yeah. Well, sort of location within our building, which is our home.

Joe: 07:05
Our home. And it may sound a little bit different because in the basement it's well carpeted, and this room is a little bit bouncy with the sound. I wonder if you'll notice. I don't know.

Carmela: 07:12
But no, we are. We're in we're in our son's room. He's taken over the basement. Um long story. Yeah, but I won't get totally into it. But let's just say it's new.

Joe: 07:21
We have a new roommate. He's a 22-year-old man.

Carmela: 07:25
Roommate. But I'm just looking around at our new space, and it's not like we walked into like, hey, you got a brand new, beautiful, no vacant space.

Joe: 07:33
No, it's a little bit upside down right now. Yeah, but we'll get better.

Carmela: 07:36
The view is the second floor view.

Joe: 07:38
Yeah, so it's better. Not in the basement. Okay.

Carmela: 07:40
Same backyard we're looking at, though.

Joe: 07:42
Okay, let's go back to the wines. If we look at the some of the most popular wines in the U.S., we can see where residual sugar actually lies in terms of popularity. So Barefoot Chardonnay, which is the top-selling table wine in the U.S., is eight grams of residual sugar. So it's not bone dry. It's technically considered dry, but it's not bone dry. Barefoot pink barefoo. Barefoo. Barefoo pink Pinot Grigio is 11 grams. So it's technically off-dry and it's labeled as extra dry. Whatever. Kendall Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay is about nine grams. Yellowtail Cabernet Sauvignon is about 10 grams. So again, getting into that off-dry. Yellowtail Shiraz is 12 grams. 19 Crimes Pinot Noir is 10 grams. So all of those are in the off-dry. They're actually not dry wines. Josh Sellers Cabernet Sauvignon is 5 grams. So that's in the dry range. Mayomy Pinot Noir, which we've done an episode on, 20 grams. So that is not just in the off-dry. That's in the semi-sweet. Wow. And then apothic red is 15 grams. This is another popular one. That's close to the semi-sweet range. And menage a tois red, which is dirty and is dirty. It sounds dirty and it is dirty, is 12 grams. So again, people would say, oh no, I like dry wines, but those are technically not really, a lot of those are technically not really dry wines. So they kind of hover in the dryish region, but they're kind of on the upper end. And I think that's by design, and we'll talk about that in a second. But the some other wines that are very popular in high-end sugar include Berenger White Zimbadel at 32 grams, Barefoot Moscato at 73 grams, Stella Rosa Red at more than 100 grams, and Francia chillable red at 54 grams. So these are Holy cow. These are definitely in the sweet range, many of them. I should also mention one other thing, which is Prosecco, which has taken the world by storm, is actually extra dry. So that again, in a sparkling, that means sweet. So that might be surprising for some people, but unless it says brute on it, like a La Marca Prosecco is 18 grams of sugar, residual sugar. So it's in it, yeah, it is in the semi-sweet range. Same with Rufino Prosecco. That's well, it's a little bit lower. It's at 15 grams. So don't fool yourself that that sparkling wine, you may be loving it because it's uh got some sugar in it. A little extra sugar, a little spoonful of sugar. Yeah, and it might be giving you a nice headache. Uh so first things first, sweet wines are popular, and in fact, moscato, which we're drinking today, is the fifth most popular varietal by volume in the US. So ignoring sweet wine is not a nice thing to do. Now, the reason some people gravitate towards sweet wine has as much to do with genes and evolution and science as anything. As a species, humans are drawn to sweet because sweet means a lot of calories, and that's good. And fun. And fun. But when you're in the wild trying to keep yourself alive, you need foods that are rich in calories. And so higher sugar is good. So from an evolutionary standpoint, we're attracted to sweetness. And a lot of people start their wine journey with sweeter wines, and so that kind of becomes their expectation of wine moving forward. And if you like to cocktail your wine, which means drinking it without food, then sometimes sweet is really what matters because cocktails are sweet, right? True. And the reason that experienced wine drinkers often don't like sweet wine is for one, they're associated with lower quality and cheaper wines quite often. So there's kind of a snob angle there. And for many, only dry red wines are really serious, which is kind of silly, but is a commonly held belief. But it is true that sugar is often added to wines to mask poor quality grapes. And then also sweet wines by nature are also kind of low in acidity, and acidity is key for pairing with a lot of foods. So, anyway, there's reasons why maybe more experienced wine drinkers don't gravitate towards sweeter wines and gravitate more towards the more serious dry wines. So, look, here's what we have to say. You do you. You do right.

Carmela: 11:38
What you like matters.

Joe: 11:39
We're not here to yuck your yuck. No. If you like things on the sweet side, go for it.

Carmela: 11:43
Take them right on the sweet side.

Joe: 11:45
Yeah, we're not here to say it's good or bad. Now, today we will drink these wines and we'll judge from our perspective whether we like them or we think they're good or not. But that doesn't mean that you have to think that. And in fact, all we care about is that you use us as a reference point.

Speaker 4: 11:58
Right.

Joe: 11:59
You may find that the wines we like, you don't like, or you may find the wines we like, you do like. Or it depends. Like depends on the type of wine or the style. And that's all we care about. And I also want to say that one other thing, sweet wines tend to do really well with spicy foods. So I think sometimes they don't get the qu the credit that they deserve for things like Thai food or spicy Asian foods. But with that, Carmela, we have two Moscato Diossi wines that we're gonna drink and rate and see what food goes with them, including the Costco Kirkland version. And we'll let you know if we would buy them. And we're also going to go into more detail around Moscato and all its history and all that fun stuff. But first, you gotta do our shameless plug. That's all right. So thank you for listening to us and supporting our show. And know that we buy all the wine we taste and review every week so that we can give you a real and honest review. And if you like what you're hearing, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a five-star rating and review so we can grow listeners and we don't mind that at all. It's actually we we like it. We also love to hear from you, and we always respond. So you can follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky and TikTok at the WinePrayer Podcast. You can contact us on our website, thewinepairpodcast.com, sign up for our email newsletter there, which will be coming out soon, the first of every month. We send it out July 1st. It's coming up just next week. At least as we're saying this, it's next week. Although by the time you listen, it may not be, maybe already passed. Who knows? Anyway, you can always send us a note at Joe at the WinePrayerPodcast.com and let us know about wines that you like to drink, or just tell us what's going on. If you're getting a Yorkie or not. We're getting a Yorkie, you guys. We did it. We pulled the trigger super fast.

Carmela: 13:30
Joe was wearing me down, and I said, buddy, it's now or never.

Joe: 13:34
Yeah, and then right after we put the deposit down that night, I had an existential. Well, that's when I said now or never. And I started sweating and I was worried.

Carmela: 13:41
I was like, I'm really grateful that he wasn't this way when we were having children. Like, I'm not so sure about this. No, it may not be able to do this.

Joe: 13:48
I got over it quickly. He bounced back. He bounced back.

Carmela: 13:51
But yeah, it was one of those things that was like talking him off the ledge, and I thought to myself, I wasn't even the one who wanted this dog.

Joe: 13:57
I know, but now you do. Now you're all in.

Speaker 4: 13:59
I really do.

Joe: 14:00
And as we do every week, we'll tell you someone we think you should recommend the wine pair podcast to, because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us. And this week we want you to recommend us to anyone who is either a fan of sweeter wines or who has shied away from them because they think that they're just cheap plunk because this episode may change their minds. True. And maybe it'll change our minds. It might. Although I have to say, I kind of do like Moscato de Osti every once in love with it. Of course. But but that like let's we're we'll get there in a minute. Okay, Carmela, it's time to find out just what the f Moscato de Oste is all about, shall we? Let's do it. I think I have to get closer to the mic, otherwise, it gets a little echoey. I think I have to get right on the mic.

Carmela: 14:38
Do I sound echoey?

Joe: 14:39
No, you sound great, as always. I think I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to use my radio voice. Wow and talk right into the microphone.

Carmela: 14:46
I've never heard this.

Joe: 14:46
I know it's kind of sexy, isn't it?

Carmela: 14:48
Wow.

Joe: 14:48
All right, the first thing we should mention is that while there are a lot of wines called Muscat or Muscato, the wine we are specifically talking about comes from, as you can guess by the name, the Osti province of Italy, which is the Piedmont region, and very close to Turin or Torino, if you prefer, where they actually hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006. Anyway, Muscato di Osti is primarily made in the northwestern part of the province, although the official production zone does include a couple of neighboring pr provinces. And the area of production is pretty big, actually, it's about 25,000 acres.

Speaker 4: 15:22
Wow.

Joe: 15:23
So for a little brain box fodder, the main production areas are Osti Langa and Monfratto. So if you really want to impress your wine nerd friends, just spit on them. Remember those. Spit on them.

Speaker 2: 15:34
Ooh.

Joe: 15:35
No, don't spit on them. For a bit more clarity, Mouscat is actually a large family of grapes with about 200 different varieties. Muscato Bianco or Mouscat Blanc are the same grape. So if you're curious, they're the same grape. In the US and France, the wine is known as Mouscat. In Italy, Moscato, in Spain and Portugal, Muscatel, and in Germany and Austria, Muscateller. So all those grapes or wines, if you hear that, they're all the same thing. They're all part of that muscat family. When you see Muscato on the label, it typically refers to the wine style that we're having today, which is fruity, sweet, a little fizzy, and low in alcohol. So all moscato is muscat, but not all muscat is moscato.

unknown: 16:17
How about that?

Speaker 4: 16:18
My goodness.

Joe: 16:19
Now the history of Moscato de Osti is long and it covers many thousands of years. Longer than I've been alive. No, I don't wait. I'm not sure. That's true. It's true. Moscato Bianco is considered one of the oldest domesticated varieties in the world, going all the way back to ancient Greece.

Carmela: 16:37
No.

Joe: 16:38
Yes, not the musical.

Carmela: 16:40
But wait, that's what I had in mind. But the place. Summer love.

Joe: 16:44
That's right. No, no, no.

Carmela: 16:45
It's summertime.

Joe: 16:46
No, I know. But you know, now we've got the Odyssey.

Carmela: 16:48
I don't think they were supposed to be drinking wine in Greece anyway.

Joe: 16:51
Are you well, no, not in the movie Greece, but in the country Greece. Greece, country Greece, yeah.

Carmela: 16:55
Yeah. I mean, they probably were in the movie too, but okay, that's neither here nor there, really.

Joe: 17:00
But we're going back to the wine. It was likely introduced to Italy through Greek trading routes, and the ancient Romans loved Muscat, let me tell you. Although they called it Apiana, which comes from the Latin word apis, which means bee. And the name comes from the fact that its honey aroma was famous for attracting bees. So if you don't want bees, don't drink moscato, I guess.

Speaker 4: 17:20
Oh boy.

Joe: 17:20
In Piedmont, which is again the area where Osti is, evidence of the grape dates back to at least the 14th century. In the Codex Astensis, which is one of my favorite books, Carmela, if you didn't know that. That's a joke. It's a it's a medieval catalog of documents in Osti. Anyway, it mentions families in the territory of Canelli who were known as Muscati. Now, it was a common custom to give last names to families based on what they did and in winemaking by the vines they grew on their land. So that's where the muscati came from. By the 16th century, growers in the Longay were legally required to plant a certain proportion of muscato in their vineyard. So this was a popular, popular wine. Being required to do it means people wanted it. The science behind the wine that we recognize today came around 1606, and by that I mean the way, the style in which it's made. A guy named Giovanni Battista Croce, uh maybe related to Jim Croce, I don't know. Was a jeweler to the Duke of Savoy. I don't know.

Carmela: 18:24
I think it's John.

Joe: 18:25
Okay. John Croce. What did I say?

Carmela: 18:27
Jim.

Joe: 18:28
No, Jim Croce was the singer. Oh. John Croce was the guy. PFI.

Carmela: 18:32
Anyway. Big John. Yeah. That's all that came to mind.

Joe: 18:35
If you're from Seattle, you know Big John. It just didn't. Not Big Jim. Yeah, it doesn't do it. Okay. Anyway, this guy was a jeweler to the Duke of Savoy, and he wrote a scientific treatise that codified the complex process of making sweet, aromatic Moscato wine. And that method remained largely unchanged until 1865.

Speaker 3: 18:54
Oh boy.

Joe: 18:55
When Carlo Gancia, after studying in Champagne, France, returned to Canelli to produce the first Italian sparkling wine using Moscato grapes that was originally called Moscato Champagne. And laid the groundwork for all of the region's eventual sparkling wine industry, which is where we get prosecco today, and you'll see why. In 1895, an analogist from Piedmont named Frederico Martinotti invented what eventually became known as the Charmat method or the tank method of making sparkling wine, which is how prosecco is made today. The secondary fermentation takes place not in the bottle like in a champagne, but in a pressurized tank called an autoclave. That's something for your brain box. Now there was a dude named Eugene Charmat who refined the method in 1907, and that's why it's called the Charmat method today, not the autoclave method. Got it. But they're the same thing. And also other names for it are the martinotti method. So they gave it a little, gave them a little, you know, little dap there, and cuve close. But you know what? That's a lot. You don't have to memorize all that.

Carmela: 20:06
I had this spinning.

Joe: 20:07
I know. The adoption of refrigeration also allowed winemakers to stop fermentation by chilling the must to near freezing temperatures, which preserved the grapes' natural sugars and primary aromas. And that means also that they were able to, by turning off the fermentation, they kept sweetness levels high and alcohol levels low. And then traditionally, Moscato de Osti was a wine that winemakers made for themselves. And you're gonna like this, Carmela, because its low alcohol content made it okay to drink for the midday meal.

Carmela: 20:38
No, I don't like that.

Joe: 20:40
Because then they could continue to work in the afternoon.

Carmela: 20:42
See, I couldn't work.

Joe: 20:43
Okay.

Carmela: 20:44
I'd have to take a nap. And I don't know if anybody's like some people might like to have a little I think Italians especially. Yeah, they have a little I mean I'm not trying to just say Italians, but I think that we've seen that. And then they do go back to work, but I couldn't. I don't think I could do it.

Joe: 20:58
I don't think I could do it either.

Carmela: 20:59
I can't.

Joe: 21:00
Now over time it has become a standard digestif to cleanse the palate before dessert. The wine was granted DOC status in 1967. It was elevated to DOCG status in 1993. And in 2023, the historic zone of Canelli was elevated to its own DOCG. Wow. Moscata de Osti had a big surge in the last about 25 years in the 2000s. And it was mainly driven in the US market, where sales skyrocketed between 2010 and 2014 because the wine started to show up in hip hop culture and in lyrics by artists like Drake, Kanye West, Lil Kim, and Nicki Minaj.

Speaker 4: 21:39
Funny, huh?

Joe: 21:40
Yeah, they called it Moscato Mania.

Speaker 4: 21:42
Oh my goodness.

Joe: 21:43
And that's it became very popular from that. Huh. Today it's very popular in Asian markets. It's growing in Asian markets like China and South Korea, where it's increasingly favored for celebrations and food pairings because it goes well with a lot of foods from those areas. Right. Wine is popular because it's sweet and low in alcohol, and in fact, it's required to be between only 4.5% and 6.5%. So it'll never be higher than 6.5%. And there are beers that have a lot more alcohol than that.

Carmela: 22:14
Interesting. I don't think I knew they were so low.

Joe: 22:17
Yeah, so low. And it's also lightly sparkling, or as the Italians say, frizzante. That's right. And it has to be 100% Moscato Bianco. And of course, to be a Moscato di Osti, it has to come from Osti. Got it. And again, great pairing with spicy dishes, all that kind of stuff. But actually, the classic pairing during Christmas time is that is traditionally served with panettone.

Carmela: 22:42
I did not know that. I didn't know that either. We don't do that.

Joe: 22:44
We don't do panettone and we don't do moscato d'oste, but we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it.

Carmela: 22:49
Okay.

Joe: 22:50
But I think that's enough information, Carmela. I think it's time to learn about the specific wines we're gonna drink today. What do you say?

Carmela: 22:56
I'm ready.

Joe: 22:57
Okay, as usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $25, and they should be relatively easy to find because I bought one at Costco, obviously, and the other one I got from wine.com. Now, Moscato Diosti should be very easy to find, although do not confuse it with Osti Spumanti, which is made from the Moscato grape, but it is made in a more classic sparkling wine style. But you should be able to find Moscato Diosti basically anywhere, including grocery stores, 7-Elevens, and maybe even the gas station if it sells all.

Speaker 3: 23:27
Whoa, okay.

Joe: 23:28
It's very popular. And as we always say, just talk to your local wine merchant, and he or she will be more than happy to find some Moscato Diosti for you. The first wine we're gonna drink today is the 2025 Kirkland signature Moscato Diosti. And this one got an 8.3 rating from the reverse wine snob and 88 from the Costco wine blog, both of which are buy ratings. So that's good to know. The reverse wine snob notes that unlike most wines, this wine has nutrition information on the bottle. What? Mostly because of the low alcohol content. So when things reach a certain alcohol content, they don't have to have that. But when it's low, it does. It's required by law, but you may not like what you see. It is 127 calories per five-ounce glass. That's a lot. And 20 grams of sugar. Oops. That translates to 133 grams of sugar per liter.

Carmela: 24:19
Ooh, wow.

Joe: 24:20
It's a lot like a Coca-Cola.

Carmela: 24:22
Yeah.

Joe: 24:23
So this is a sweet wine.

Carmela: 24:25
This is a treat.

Joe: 24:26
Yeah, it's not on your keto plan.

Carmela: 24:28
No, and this might be something you just have every once in a while. Yeah. We're not your doctor.

Joe: 24:34
But you do what you want to do.

Carmela: 24:35
Right. I'm not telling you, you know. Hey. This is not any type of medical advice.

Joe: 24:40
If it's noon and you want to have a nooner, well, and you just open up that Muscata de Ostia and then you go back to work. Hey man. You do you.

Carmela: 24:48
You do you.

Joe: 24:49
Yeah. Okay. It is a DOCG wine, so it's totally authentic. And I did try to find some information about who makes it, which can sometimes be easy or hard depending on how Costco is kind of playing the wine. Sometimes they put the winemaker in the bottle, sometimes they don't. The best I could find on the interwebs is that it is important by Ethica Wines, and it's bottled in Aquiterme by MPL SPA, which is owned by M O Mondo Delvino SPA. Now, why does that matter? I couldn't tell you a lot else about the wine, and I did ask ChatGPT for some help. But what I can tell you is the wine operation, the sparkling wine operation in Aquiterme is likely the one that is making this as a private private label. And the winemaker there is Loris Gava, and the assistant is Yelenia Dura. And so while I can't confirm it 100%, one of those two is likely involved in this wine in some way. And while we can't find any definitive information on how much of this wine they sell through Costco, you see it there a lot. Like you'll often just see it there. And a rough estimate from my friend ChatGPT, which is never wrong, by the way. Right. It's never wrong.

Carmela: 25:59
My mom calls it Mr. Chat.

Joe: 26:01
Mr. Chat is that they probably sell somewhere between 750,000 and a million bottles a year.

Carmela: 26:08
What?

Joe: 26:08
That's a lot.

Carmela: 26:09
So they always have it, or you can just find it there a lot.

Joe: 26:11
I think uh I mean, I would love to hear what people say if they've gone shopping at Costco recently, but I think you can always find it.

Carmela: 26:18
Amazing. So it's it is very popular. It's very it's as popular as getting like Kirk and Prosecco.

Joe: 26:24
Yeah, I mean, exactly. So, you know, they're not selling it because it doesn't sell, they're selling it because it's popular. Right. Popular. Okay, the next wine we're gonna drink is the 2024 Saraco Moscato di Osti. And this is a wine that you should not have any trouble finding. I've seen it at a lot of grocery stores. This wine got a best buy rating and a 93 from wine enthusiasts. And you're not gonna believe this, but it got a 90 rating from James Suckey's son. Way to mix it up. I know Jimmy! Way to go, baby.

Carmela: 26:54
Okay, I actually found a couple of- You know, consistency is his middle name. It matters.

Joe: 26:58
Okay. When you get paid to review wines like James Suckling does, give him a 90. Holy cow. Anyway, I act that I now that I'm that is um sarcasm, people. I don't want to get sued by James Suckling. That was a joke. This is humor.

Carmela: 27:12
We're a humorous podcast. People know you. Yeah. So there's that.

Joe: 27:18
Yeah, there's that. Anyway, um, I did find a couple of tech sheets for this wine, but they didn't give a ton of great information. But I'll tell you what I could find. The vineyard is in Castiglione Tinella. The soil is made of sand and silt and limestone, which is good for water stress. It's about 1,500 feet or about 450 meters above sea level. It's 100% Moscato Bianco, and it's 145 grams per liter of sugar. It's a lot. So my goodness. Yeah, exactly. The winery says after harvesting, the bunches are gently pressed to extract the most flavorful juice from the outermost part of the grapes. I have never heard that before.

Carmela: 27:57
From the skins, huh? Or like like right before the skins.

Joe: 28:00
Well, this is why it's up for interpretation. What is the outermost part of the grapes?

Carmela: 28:04
Oh, that's what I mean. Is it if it's the outermost part?

Joe: 28:07
I think what it means is they're not like squeezing it down to the nubs.

Carmela: 28:10
I just trying to, they're coming up with some way to make it sound extra fancy. Yeah, exactly. Okay.

Joe: 28:16
The must is kept in stainless steel containers at negative three degrees Celsius, which I don't know what that means. And I know it's below freezing, where it can be kept for months, and then when there's market demand, below freezing. Yeah, yeah. It is then transferred into autoclaves for temperature-controlled fermentation, micro filtered for purity, and then bottled to keep the freshness and flavors intact. And for both of these wines and any Moscato de Ostee, you want to serve these wines cold.

Carmela: 28:44
Ooh, I was waiting for that.

Joe: 28:45
Gold, cold, like fridge cold. Sometimes we say, take it out of the fridge, 20 minute no.

Carmela: 28:50
It's not a 2020 rule.

Joe: 28:51
No, this one breaks the 2020 rule. Take this baby out of the fridge and then drink it and put it back in the fridge or put it in an ice bucket. But yeah, oh, you know what? You could totally have this with ice cubes, and it may actually help tamp down on the sweetness. But you know why you don't want it to get warmed up?

Carmela: 29:08
Um, why don't you want it to get warmed up, Joe?

Joe: 29:11
When sweet wines get a little warm, they start to get syrupy. They start to get a little cloying. So if you want to just get that like crisp kind of like a cough syrup. Exactly. Because we drink a lot of cough syrup and we just keep that stuff in the fridge.

Carmela: 29:26
When I recently had cough syrup, it reminded me of it. When's the last time you had cough syrup? I don't know. But I you could, you know what? I don't know. But again, the last time I did, I was like, oh, is this cough syrup or is this moscato?

Joe: 29:39
Okay, okay. I wasn't lightly effervescent, maybe, maybe. But also the coldness helps with the effervescence, which is I didn't have a cold, by the way. No, no. She no, she doesn't. She often has cough syrup before she comes to bed with me. Anyway, that's a whole nother story. What? But that's enough information, so let's get to drinking. If you have a Moscato di Osti or any sparkling Osti or Moscato or whatever, just drink along with us. And we'll be right back. Okay, we're back and we're ready to try our first wine. The first wine is the Kirkland signature Moscato di Osti. It's from Osti Italy. This is the 2025 vintage. It was $8.49 at Costco. Come on. Only 5% alcohol, 100% Moscato Bianco. And again, the reverse wine snob give it 8.3. Costco wine blog give it an 88. Those are both good scores. And I will say, they're both of these wines are screw caps. Oh, I think that's a good one. I think they're both screwed.

Carmela: 30:38
This one is such a pretty bottle. It's kind of cute. It is funny with the Kirkland label. Like I almost put my thumb in front of it, like, I don't really want to see that label all the time. But it's so pretty, and I love the shape of it. It's just fun.

Joe: 30:52
It's fun. It's fun. Okay, well, let's talk about the color.

Carmela: 30:55
Super light.

Joe: 30:56
It's light. Like, would you say like straw or like vanilla? Actually, you know what? It kind of looks like to me is lemonade. Like a light lemonade.

Carmela: 31:03
Oh my gosh, I'm almost feeling like it's almost more like tan than yellow. Yeah. Almost like a khaki pant. Is that what you call it? Trouser? Looks like a trouser.

Joe: 31:13
Looks like trousers.

Carmela: 31:14
Do you think like a really light trouser? Sure. It's a weird thing to compare a glass of wine to you.

Joe: 31:18
I don't wear any pants of that color, so but not for a long time.

Carmela: 31:22
I think you used to. Oh boy.

Joe: 31:23
Yeah, in like the 90s. Anyway, okay. That's how old I am. All right. Let's smell it.

Carmela: 31:29
It smells so good. It smells like a candle.

Joe: 31:31
It it does smell like a Yankee candle.

Carmela: 31:33
Yeah, it smells like pear and it smells like um honey.

Joe: 31:37
It's got a honey, a little citrus on it, I think. Maybe a little but but like a little tropical fruity kind of smell.

Carmela: 31:43
It's like a pina colada. Ooh, I like that.

Joe: 31:46
You think there's a little coconut in it?

Carmela: 31:49
I don't know, but I just think it smells lovely. Like it doesn't even smell like alcohol wine.

Joe: 31:53
No, it smells like a delicious. Yeah, it smells like a delicious fruit juice. It's got it's got a little spice on it, too. Like I feel like maybe it's got a little hint of like cinnamon or something or clove.

Carmela: 32:04
Yeah, ooh, it's it's I'm just like you like it. Yeah, but I'm trying to think there's something else on it I'm trying to get.

Joe: 32:10
It does kind of have like a something almost like a light orange or or like an orangey citrus on it.

Carmela: 32:18
Well, and the one thing about this is you know, sometimes there's we smell wines and we're like, I'm not really sure we should put this in our body. This one does. This is like you absolutely yes, this smells so good. Like I would like this as an air freshener.

Joe: 32:29
Yeah. Soap. If your hand soap smelled like this, you'd wash your hands all the time. Yep, okay. It's kind of sticky, but yeah, it would be, but that's okay. Uh, should we taste it?

Carmela: 32:37
Yes.

Joe: 32:38
Oh my gosh.

Carmela: 32:38
Okay, lock this one up because your children will drink this and enjoy it.

Joe: 32:43
It doesn't taste like it has any alcohol in it.

Carmela: 32:45
No, it's like a it's almost like a tamped-down fruit juice.

Joe: 32:51
Yeah, you know what it's tasting like to me is a little bit of that canned peach or canned pear juice. Maybe the canned pear. It could be canned pear or canned peach.

Carmela: 33:00
Yeah, peach or pear.

Joe: 33:01
I don't know how it's super sweet, but it is good.

Carmela: 33:05
Your kids would love this. They could put a straw in this and drink it all day long. So just like I said, lock it up.

Joe: 33:11
And my blood sugar has just peaked.

Carmela: 33:12
I'm just like just looking at smelling it, I think could make your blood sugar spiky.

Joe: 33:17
My gosh.

Carmela: 33:18
But it's nice. I mean, again, it is definitely giving me that box that vibe that I couldn't get through much of it.

Joe: 33:25
Yeah. Apple juice. I'm getting apple juice.

Carmela: 33:28
Like a treetop apple juice. Treetop apple juice.

Joe: 33:30
It's got a little spark sparkle in it. It is just slightly effervescent. It's almost, it's even lighter in effervescence than a soda. It's super light.

Carmela: 33:38
I mean, it's kind, you know, like one, I part of me wants to say it martinelli's, like sparkling cider. Yeah. But I think it's actually there's not a lot of tartness on it. Like it doesn't have it's more sweet, or it's actually not what I would go to in a juice or a fruit. Like I like because it's too sweet. Uh-huh. I like a little tartness, right?

Joe: 33:57
Okay.

Carmela: 33:57
But so yeah. Do you like orange juice? I used to really like it.

Joe: 34:01
You know, orange juice has as much residual sugar as a Coca-Cola.

Carmela: 34:04
I believe it. And that's probably why, you know.

Joe: 34:06
And like this. Exactly. Like this is the equivalent of an orange juice.

Carmela: 34:10
I believe it. Yeah. I want to say that my mom, when we'd have orange juice, she'd always put another can of water in it.

Joe: 34:17
Yes, she did extra extra water it. Yeah. And sometimes I think your brother would put water in it too. Yeah. I think I might need to. I, you know what? Ice cubes in this would actually be really good because it's so sweet that it would really I'm finding it super sweet and hard to from that perspective, because we just don't drink a lot of it. I I kind of wish it was a glass full of ice cubes.

Carmela: 34:38
There's a little bit of melon on it too. Like a honeydew melon.

Joe: 34:42
I agree with that.

Carmela: 34:43
I mean, the thing is, is that I don't I mean we'll talk about rating, but I mean, I don't love it.

Joe: 34:49
Well, it's so good though.

Carmela: 34:50
It's so good, but I just couldn't have a lot of it. And I really like this is like a gummy candy. It's not a sour patch, kid. I need a soury.

Joe: 34:59
You know what? It tastes like a haribo gummy bear.

Carmela: 35:03
Yeah. It does, and that's what I mean. Like, I like those, but I I do like I need a little tartness.

Joe: 35:09
Okay. All right. That's why you like me. A little bitterness on there. Okay. What food might you pair with this boscato diasti panettone?

Carmela: 35:17
I'm not really sure what I want with this.

Joe: 35:19
I'm not really I know they say like spicy foods, but I still think this is a little bit much. Like maybe if it was like on fire spicy food.

Carmela: 35:28
I'd like cotton candy with it.

Joe: 35:30
I I mean I honestly having a little bit of trouble. Maybe it part of it is because we just don't drink sweet wines.

Carmela: 35:37
Yeah. But I I'm not really thinking this is a great like food wine.

Joe: 35:42
I feel like it's more of a dessert. I think it's more like a digestif.

Carmela: 35:46
Yeah, and I almost feel like this is the dessert.

Joe: 35:48
I I I agree.

Carmela: 35:49
Is that what you mean? Yeah, like you don't need dessert unless maybe again, this might be something good over ice cream.

Joe: 35:54
It might be. It might be. But like sometimes, you know, on a Sunday night dinner, we might do the little liqueur. This is like a liqueur. I feel like it's a dessert one.

Carmela: 36:02
Do you know what? You could have sherbet with this. Sherbet! You could have like an Italian ice. It's not sherbet. No, but you could do like a an Italian.

Joe: 36:11
This tastes like a granita.

Carmela: 36:12
Yeah, yeah. It's not, there's no tartness on it.

Joe: 36:16
You know what? You're kind of making me think it almost tastes like a little bit like a slurpee. Like a lemon slurpee. Yeah.

Carmela: 36:21
I just feel like yes, like this could be a palate cleanser in between a course. If you were going to like a sorbet, exactly. If you're gonna do a lem a limone sorbet and you wanted to have a little like if you're doing a dinner party and you want like that cleansing note, and you make yourself a little limone or a little lemon sorbet, this could be paired with it, don't you think?

Joe: 36:44
Yeah, and now that you're saying that, it is kind of reminding me a little bit without that tartness, a little bit of a limoncello, like or like a frozen like lemon sorbet. There's something very citrusy about it.

Carmela: 36:54
Yeah. So I don't know about food with this, honey. Did we ever come up?

Joe: 36:57
No, I think I think we're saying it's kind of more of a dessert.

Carmela: 37:00
Okay.

Joe: 37:00
I think it is the food. Right. All right, we're gonna rate this wine as a reminder on our rating scale. We rate on a scale of one to ten. We don't give half points. Seven and above means we'd buy it. Four below means we're pouring it down the sink. And a five or six means we're gonna drink it and we'll finish it, but we're probably not gonna buy it. So this is a tough one. This is really tough. Because it's I like it. I probably wouldn't buy it, but that doesn't mean it's not buyable.

Carmela: 37:22
Yeah, see, this is what I'm having a hard time with. I like the whole idea around it. I do too. And I wanna really like it, but I am not going to finish this.

Speaker 2: 37:30
Yeah.

Carmela: 37:30
I'm not going to. Yeah. Not because it tastes bad.

Joe: 37:33
Yeah.

Carmela: 37:33
It tastes good. It's just not what I'm doing.

Joe: 37:36
You're not four or below, definitely.

Carmela: 37:38
No, I'm not for or below, but like I'm still not going to probably finish a glass.

Joe: 37:43
Sure. So I guess maybe we're breaking our own rating scale a little bit.

Carmela: 37:46
That's the thing.

Joe: 37:47
Where would you put it?

Carmela: 37:48
That's where I'm having a hard time. Because I I like the taste of it, but I would need to have a small, small serving of it. I'm gonna give it, I'm gonna give it a five.

Joe: 37:56
Okay. I'm gonna give it a six, but I may come back and give it a seven. I I'm just trying to I'm trying to rate it on the merit of what it is.

Carmela: 38:04
Yeah, see, that's that's probably what I should be doing. Except for I want to taste the other one.

Joe: 38:08
Yeah, let's taste the other one and then we'll judge. But again, I would tell you that if I have this, like if you if you get a soda pop and you have a lot of ice cubes in it, this is the same thing.

Carmela: 38:18
Well, and that's the thing, is I could see myself also just gulp, gulp, gulp like several gulps of it and then be like, like, wow, that was so good, but also kind of feel like I have a stomachache.

Joe: 38:27
Yes, I agree. Okay, well, we're you're five, I'm six. We're gonna stick with that for a minute. Okay. But this is not a bad wine at all. No, okay. Let's uh we're gonna take a break, try our second wine.

unknown: 38:37
Okay.

Joe: 38:41
Okay, we're back and we're ready to have our second wine. This is the Seracco Moscati di Asti. It's from Osti Italy. This is the 2024 vintage. It was $16.97, so almost twice as much as the Costco wine. We got it at wine.com. 6% alcohol, so much higher.

Speaker 4: 38:57
Wow.

Joe: 38:57
100% Moscato Bianco wine enthusiasts gave it a 93, and Jimmy James Suckling Sucky Suck gave it a 90. This wine is a screw cap. So two screw caps in a row. Uh, what's the color? It's it's nearly the same as the other one.

Carmela: 39:12
It's very light.

Joe: 39:13
I gotta be honest, I feel like there's a little green tinge in it. I don't know why. I'm not just I thought that before I got into the room and I was putting it against this box, but actually I was thinking that it's almost got just like a hair green hue. I don't know why.

Carmela: 39:28
Okay, I think maybe too.

Joe: 39:30
But it's lemony, it's again kind of lemony yellow.

Carmela: 39:32
Or lime. Yeah, but I don't know why the inside of a lime.

Joe: 39:36
Yeah, maybe that's it. I like that. Inside of a lime. Okay, let's smell it and see what we think.

Carmela: 39:40
Okay.

Joe: 39:41
I'm getting that same. I'm gonna say it because I just I'm just gonna say it, but lychee. I don't know what that is, but there's a what do you mean you don't know what that is? Well, I know I've smelled them, but like it's got this funny tropical fruit, citrus is the smell. I I know that's stupid because I don't even know if I've ever had one, but it's a L-Y-C-H-E-E.

Carmela: 40:00
Yeah. Okay.

Joe: 40:02
But it's got a little spice on it. It's a little spicier, I guess.

Carmela: 40:04
It's a little spicier. I would agree with that. And I don't think it as is as like, it's not like as cloying. I can't say the word very well. You know, like the smell is not as sweet.

Joe: 40:15
It's not. I also say this one is almost like foamy.

unknown: 40:19
Yeah.

Joe: 40:19
Like if you swirl it around, it gets kind of foamy.

Carmela: 40:21
We're gonna see. It could be very effervescent.

Joe: 40:24
I'm getting, yeah, I agree. I'm getting a little peach on it, a little bit of I'm getting a little yeast on this one.

Carmela: 40:29
Are you in a little bit? Yeah, I don't know why. Just a little bit brioche, like a sweet sweet, right?

Joe: 40:35
Like a donut. Like a donut.

Carmela: 40:37
Kind of, yeah.

Joe: 40:38
Like you know what it smells like a little bit on just on that note? A lemon-filled donut. Come on. Come on.

Carmela: 40:44
Oh, man, that sounds really good. Yes. Doesn't it?

Joe: 40:47
Maybe a little bit? Okay, let's taste it and see what we think. Okay. Believe it or not, I actually think this one's sweeter. I don't know why. In the mouth, it's super sweet and it's very like lemony, citrusy.

Carmela: 40:59
A little bit more citrus on it on the taste, though. I think there's a little more you think lemon or lime?

Joe: 41:05
Or orange?

Carmela: 41:06
Maybe orange. Hard to tell. Because orange can kind of be tamped down, like there's there's not still not a lot of um acidity or tartness that I miss. I kind of wish it was a little bit of tartness on it. Yeah, like a little bit of lemon, actual lemon.

Joe: 41:21
Lemon. Do this. Take a little sip. Just take a little sip and put it in your mouth. I think it tastes like lemonade.

unknown: 41:27
Yeah.

Joe: 41:28
I think it kind of tastes like a lemonade. It does have a little bit of that tart. I know you're saying you want more, but I feel like it does have a little bit of tartness.

Carmela: 41:34
This one definitely more than the other.

Joe: 41:36
Yeah.

Carmela: 41:37
This one I actually think food would pair better with.

Joe: 41:40
Well, do you want to go there? Let's go there.

Carmela: 41:42
Okay, okay. So I mean, I do think you could do like spicy food with this. I think I'm I could definitely see, you know, like a some sort of spicy Thai dish, you know, a pad thai.

Joe: 41:53
I think you're finding like the last one was a little bit more floury or soapy, and this one is more lemony. So I think that tends like we're thinking more food because it's that lemon is acidic, and even though this wine isn't super acidic, it does have that lemony edge to it.

Carmela: 42:08
Right. Well, and with the effervescence and that little bit of brioche or yeasty taste that's going along with it, it's a little more palatable with food.

Joe: 42:16
You know what it tastes like to me? What? Your lemon squares. Oh, yes. It tastes like the lemon squares you made. And that kind of like curd, curdy kind of lemon.

Carmela: 42:28
Right, right, right. But I do think there's something about the whole uh dessert. The lemon. Yeah, the crust with the bread.

Joe: 42:34
You know, it's kind of bready. I think that's exactly what it tastes like. Ooh. Lemon square.

Carmela: 42:38
And this would be good with it too.

Joe: 42:39
I think it's a dessert wine again. Yeah. I do.

Carmela: 42:41
I mean, I think you could use this, it's more of a you could get away with having some spicy foods with this and enjoy it more than the other one.

Joe: 42:50
I think so, but I still wouldn't do it. It's I just would miss the dryness. Would you have this by the pool?

Carmela: 42:55
I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, I think if you are going to, you want to put an ice cube in it. I'm not kidding. You want to keep it cold.

Joe: 43:03
It has to be cold. Again, I think both, I mean, I know this is like for wine nerds or snobs, it's like never put ice cubes in a wine.

Carmela: 43:10
I think ice cubes would work great for the or even the kind that don't melt, like just those frozen ones that you know.

Joe: 43:17
I'm disagreeing with you because I think you need to tamp down some of the sweetness. For me, for me, for me. I think for some people it's like no perfect the way it is.

Carmela: 43:24
Yeah.

Joe: 43:25
But it to me, it's like drinking a soda. It's like drinking a sprite. Okay. Don't you think maybe it takes a little bit of a little bit?

Carmela: 43:30
Yeah, a little bit of that. Yeah.

Joe: 43:31
Lemon lime, lemon lime. Okay, what rating are you gonna give this wine?

Carmela: 43:36
I'm enjoying this one more. Okay. I'm gonna give it um, oof, I'm still having a hard time whether or not I buy this. For the right occasion, I might. I'm really kind of oh, I'm cheater chattering on six and seven, six, seven. Six, seven, six, seven, six, seven. Okay, so um, I'm gonna give it, I'm gonna give it a six.

Joe: 43:55
Wow. Okay. I'm giving this one a six as well. I don't know why. I like it. I almost like the first one. Little bit better. Oh, interesting. So, which one are you gonna drink tonight? We're not gonna drink either them tonight, by the way. Again, I think my blood sugar is spiking.

Carmela: 44:08
I think I'll go with this Sorracco.

Joe: 44:10
Okay, I think I might go with the Costco.

Carmela: 44:12
Okay, look at that. Look at that. I mean, and that's the thing is I think that's if you like Moscato, I think you're gonna really enjoy this.

Joe: 44:19
Yeah, also the Costco one's so cheap, which is such a good price.

Carmela: 44:23
And it's a great, I feel like these are well, they're pretty, it's a pretty bottle, but awesome like celebration wines.

Joe: 44:28
I agree with you.

Carmela: 44:29
I mean, I don't that's why I would drink a sweet wine like this. Yeah. If you're celebrating something or you're having it, are you having an end-of-dinner drink with a dinner party or at a restaurant?

Joe: 44:38
Or you know, sometimes you have parties and it's like a dessert party or whatever. Or like if you're at a wedding and you're serving something with dessert, like this would be great.

Carmela: 44:46
Yeah, I agree.

Joe: 44:47
Okay, well, let's talk about the taste profiles expected from Moscato d'Asti and if we nailed them. It in general, stone fruits like white peach, nectarine, and apricot. Oh, apricot. Citrus like Meyer Lemon, Mandarin Orange Zest, and grapefruit, florals like orange blossom, honeysuckle, and jasmine, honey, sugary grapes, melon, lychee, passion fruit. Passion fruit's a good one. Frizzanti. Okay, Kirkland signature. The winery says with notes of honeysuckle and ripe peach. This beautiful golden white wine makes an excellent apertif. Costco wine blog, tons of citrus, green apple, peach, and honey. Very sweet. Reverse wine snob opens with lots of sweet, honey soaked fruit aromas like citrus peach. We got some of that, a little tropical fruit. A whole lot of sugar in here, but plenty of acidity, they're saying that's interesting. Um I don't get that. Downright delicious. Uh, lovely stuff. Ends with a crisp, off-dry, long finish. I don't think it's off-dry, I think it's so sweet.

Carmela: 45:44
Yeah, I do too.

Joe: 45:45
The saraco, the winery says straw yellow with greenish hues. I am not kidding. I I didn't, I I'm not kidding. That's amazing. Intense orange blossom, peach, and thyme aromas. Time. Intense, elegant, and lingering on the palate.

Speaker 4: 45:59
Lingering, sure.

Joe: 46:00
Uh, pleasant acidity, fruity aromas typical of muscat grapes. Okay. Okay. Wine enthusiast says the wine captures pure sunshine, exhibiting pristine floral aromas. I got more flowers in the first one, I thought. Fresh stone fruit. We were getting stone fruit. Effervescence carries the sweetness with grace and precision. A masterclass in what makes Moscato de Osti special.

Carmela: 46:23
See, for Moscato, it's really good. I think it's a good wine. It's probably quite good.

Joe: 46:26
Okay. And Sucky James Suckling says, perfumed with orange blossoms, white peaches, and nectarines, light bodied, sweet and smooth on the palate, fine bubbles, moderate acidity, and a lean finish. Lean. I don't know about that. Carmella, what is your verdict on Moscato dioste?

Carmela: 46:43
It's not probably for me. But I think that if you want to add this to a dinner party lineup, I think it would be super fun. I think it's it's ta I mean it has a very nice taste to it. Very nice. Yeah, it's very nice. Everything about it is it tastes good. It just is not my cup of tea. How about you?

Joe: 47:07
Well, what I think is if you like sweet wine, you know, I think sweet wines have a really bad reputation. And these are kind of elegant sweet wines. So what I would say is, I I don't care, you know, like it doesn't matter to me what wines you like, you like wines. But for me, like for a sweet wine, this is a night, these are nice, elegant sweet wines. I don't think we would buy them, I don't think we would drink them. But if we serve them, great. If they come in the right, like kind of celebration or occasion, great. Unfortunately, there's too much sugar in them.

Carmela: 47:37
Just yeah, and like sipping on them is another thing. Like, I'm not gonna need this. Is almost like a liqueur type of serving.

Joe: 47:44
I agree.

Carmela: 47:44
You just need like a hint of it.

Joe: 47:46
For us, that's all you need.

Carmela: 47:47
Like a tasting, if you're going to a wine tasting, like that type of serving.

Joe: 47:51
Yeah, a little bit. I agree. And now it's time to head over to our news desk so that we can cover our wine in the news this week segment. Wine in the news this week. Our wine in the news this week comes from a packaging industry trade publication called Packaging Insights, which is Wow. Yeah. And it's written by Libby Davis, and links are in the show notes as always. And her article is entitled Aluminum Cans Offer Viable Alternative to Glass for Wine Packaging Study Find. So it answers the age-old question: does it matter if your wine comes in a can or a bottle?

Carmela: 48:31
We've tried both.

Joe: 48:32
We have. Now, wine, we haven't done wine in a can in a long time.

Carmela: 48:35
No, no. I think there's just good purpose for them.

Joe: 48:38
Well, we're gonna talk about that.

Carmela: 48:39
Okay.

Joe: 48:40
Wine snobs, wine purists may scoff, but the science is starting to say it doesn't matter. So it turns out that researchers at the University of Florida took wine, put some in aluminum cans and some in glass bottles, and kept them side by side for six months. So same environment. Then they tested things like color, aroma, flavor, acidity, alcohol, the chemical breakdown of the pigments, and more. And what they found was that the cans performed comparably to the bottles, and that the changes in the wine were the same in both types of packaging and could be attributed to time and temperature rather than the actual container. Exactly. The wine they tested was carbonated mouscadine, which sounds like muscato, and it's a sweet grape and often made into sweet wine, but it's not. Mouscadine is a North American grape that's genetically distinct from muscato, but we just had to call that out. Anyway, the study was repeated more than once, another time with carbonated blueberry wine, so I don't know why they don't just use normal wines, but anyway, uh they tested that wine in glass, aluminum, and plastic, and they found no differences.

Carmela: 49:42
Even in plastic.

Joe: 49:43
Yeah, in fact, for young white wines and roses, a can might actually be slightly better than the bottle. And the reason for that is cans are completely airtight, so there's zero oxygen exposure during storage. So although the studies didn't show this exactly, airtight containers that don't let light in are going to preserve wines much better. And this is not dissimilar from screw caps like we had today, which are nearly perfect when it comes to things like not letting in oxygen, unlike a cork. Now, sometimes you want that, and that's why corks work well. And a separate study from the University of Arkansas lead researcher Renee Threlfall said the res the perception is that quality wine is in the glass, but that the perception can change as new and innovative packaging for wine becomes available. But from our perspective, there are added benefits to things like cans because the weight is less, the cost is less, and so there's that too. So Carmilla, the science is in. And although we have not had wine in a can for a while, we do kind of like it.

Carmela: 50:42
Oh, yeah. But remember, don't let it fool you. Because each can equals a half of wine.

Joe: 50:51
It's crazy people.

Carmela: 50:52
So you know, you're thinking, oh, I drink a can of pop or can of beer or a can of sparkling water. It's very different.

Joe: 51:00
Very different.

Carmela: 51:01
Be careful. Don't tell us we never warned you.

Joe: 51:04
Right.

Carmela: 51:05
Wait, is that how you say it?

Joe: 51:07
I don't know, but I like it. All right, we have a lot of listener shout-outs this week. Super fun. We love it when you reach out to us and tell us what you think or what you're drinking. So here are some. Adam let us know he did try his older vintage Moussard Lebanese wine, but he felt like its best days were behind it. It was a 1994. Oh. So it was old. Yeah. He didn't think it was, he liked it, but he didn't think it maybe it was past its prime. Timmy sent us some more names and also schooled me on some pronunciations. Because I don't do French that well. And he shared his concern that the he knew that the we would not like the all-sauce Pinot Gris. So there you go. Okay. Christine, aka Tips to Live By, shared that since their trip to Italy, she's been really into Chianti and other Italian wine. So hey, there you go. East Idaho Foodies told us about some Chianti they were drinking, talked about a dog. They had a Morky, which I think is a Maltese Yorkie mix, which is probably really cute.

Carmela: 52:01
Oh my goodness.

Joe: 52:02
And she said that they went to Toronto to see Croatia in the World Cup. Gimme a break. That's awesome.

Carmela: 52:08
Oh, that's really fun.

Joe: 52:09
Adrian shared an awesome video on Instagram that really spoke to me. I sent it to Carmilla because it made fun of people who overshare and only order California. Chardonnay. Ted found a Sangiovese Bianco. Have you ever heard of that?

Speaker 4: 52:24
No.

Joe: 52:25
White Sangiovese. Wow, where? At a wine store. No. It's from Italy. No way. Because it's Sangiovese. But anyway, he also has all the Kirkland wines we're going to try. So Ted, you got to let us know if you agree with our tastings or not.

Speaker 4: 52:40
Right.

Joe: 52:41
And then Shaker from the Nala reached out and he was featured in an article called Drop the Riesling Reflex. Anyway, it's about how people from Asian countries, including India, are being ignored by the wine industry. So nice work, Shaker.

Carmela: 52:54
Yeah, good job.

Joe: 52:55
So I have a link to the article in our show notes. We're always happy Shaker was good enough to visit when he was out in Seattle.

Carmela: 53:01
So cool.

Joe: 53:01
Turn in the favor. Okay, wine's coming up in future episodes in case you want to drink along with us. We're going to do Kirkland Bordeaux, the 2023 Saint-Julien, and the 2023 Polyac. I probably said him wrong, right, Timmy. We're going to do Verdejo, we're going to do Gigondas, we're going to do Vermentino, we're going to do Chateau de Papa, including the Costco one. And if you want links or the exact vintages or whatever for these wines, you can always come to our show notes. But with that, thank you for listening to us and supporting our show. And remember, we buy all of our own wine and we do all the writing and recording and editing to bring you a show every week because we absolutely love doing it. And our small, tiny, teeny little ask is that you please follow or subscribe to our podcast and leave us a nice five-star rating review to help us grow listeners. And a huge, huge, huge thank you to everyone who's done that already. You can follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky and TikTok at the WinePair Podcast. Contact us on our website, thewinepairpodcast.com. You can sign up for our email newsletter there. You can sh visit our shop wine section where you can get links to all the wines that we rate as buys from our episodes. And we we'd love to make content that you care about. So just reach out to us at Joe at the WinePair Podcast.com. But with that, we're gonna sign off. So thank you once again. We'll see you next time. And as we like to say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine. Bye-bye.