TWO WINES ENJYING THE SAME PRESTIGE

The muscatel must can take two forms, that is it can be used to make two different d.o.c.g. wines (of controlled and warranted name and origin), whose bottles have the Italian State filigreed seal. These are two "special" wines in that they contain a reasonable percentage of unfermented sugars. However, they are not cloying because the sweetness is harmoniously tempered by just the right touch of acidity and, in particular, by the inimitable aroma of the autentically original grape. Its primary aroma is preserved precisely because of that sugar content. It is a musky, delicate and intense aroma, redolent of wisteria and linden flowers, the summer fruit of peaches and apricots, with a dash of lemon and oranfe blossoms.

As we mentioned, there are two muscatel wines. the first, more traditional wine, mainly the product of a refined rural craft, is the Moscato d'Asti, which is the sweeter and less sparkling of the two wines. It has become a drink that is enjoying increasing prestige in top restaurants and the most discriminating cellars.

But the leading product is the Asti, a sparking wine that has non equal in the word, for it is made from that grape must we mentioned earlier and not from fermented wine as is the case for all the other sparkling wines.

The method used for Asti was developed in the late 1800s by Martinotti, a scholar at the Royak Oenological Centre in Asti.

In replaced the classic but inconvenient method of fermenting in bottles, which inevitably involved a high coincidence of broken bottles. The new method consists of collecting the froth in large containers and subsequently chilling it again.

Asti is the envy of the entire world and perhaps needs to be better understood. It is an important product of prestige, in line with current consumers trends, precisely because of its low alcohol content: just 7 degrees.

Furthemore, quite frankly it is a mistake to serve a dry sparkling wine with sweets - it makes no sense in gastronomics terms, and is even an offence to the palate.

It is a spumante that is shipped throughout the world. Eighty five million bottles are produced every year (as opposed to the five million bottles of the Moscato d'Asti, the product without the mushroom-shaped cork). But in order to further elevate its reputation it needs to be better appreciated. People have to "belive" in it. In fact, it is produced by the largest consortia in the Italian wine-making industry.