Moscato d’Asti & Asti Spumante: Affordable Sparkling Wines for the Holidays

As the holidays approach many people are looking for a sparkling wine to serve at intimate dinners and large parties. The region of Piemonte produces two that should be on your list: Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti. The area called the Piemonte is at the foot of the Alps in the northwest corner of Italy. This region produces many other wines including dry reds and whites and also some sparkling wines. For a more detailed history of the area please see the first part of my three part series on Barolo, the Piemonte’s most famous wine.

The Moscato grape has been cultivated near the commune of Asti for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It is described in the Statues of the Commune of Cannelli written in the 1200’s. At the end of the 16th Century, a jeweler from Milan, Giovan Battista Croce, published a recipe for making Moscato D’Asti. Croce had become wealthy making jewelry for royalty. He moved to Turin and purchased a vineyard between the towns of Montevecchio and Candia. There, he worked on perfecting viticulture.

In 1606 he published “Of the Excellence and Diversity of Wines that are Made on the Mountain of Turin and How To Make Them”. He explained that to make Moscato, the grapes are separated from the stems immediately before pressing. The must (unfiltered crushed grape juices) obtained is then vinified separately from the skins. The must is cleaned and disinfected forming a coperta. The juice is filtered repeatedly creating a clean sweet juice.

There are two types of sparkling sweet wines made from the Moscato grape in the Piemonte. One is the ubiquitous Asti Spumante. This is a wine that is often mass-produced in industrial quantities. Many of us can remember the television adds for Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante. We may have even tried some. It is a sweet, sparkling wine that goes down easy. Although it would be easy to dismiss this wine, it serves a nice function, which is a festive wine at a very affordable price. Many people enjoy the sweetness of the wine. The sweetness comes from the natural high sugar levels found in the Moscato grape.