If we think about Piemonte it is all about Barolo and Barbaresco, right? No! There is way more to explore apart from these terrifically elegant wines.
This time we decided to go for the still unexplored pathways, so our tour brought us to Montferrato, organized by Paul Balke who organized for us journalists, bloggers, and #winelovers these lovely 4 days that he calls passionately the Sweet Hills Tour. Around 10 years ago he came here to write a book about the places and faces of Piemonte that almost nobody knows about and he simply fall in love with this place, so he decided to change his quality of life by moving from the Netherlands to Piemonte.
Canelli, a beautiful city and headquarter of Spumante! This was the first place we were expected to be. It is called the heart of Piemonte.
We were received by Mario Celluti, Vicepresident here at ENOTECA REGIONALE COLLINE DEL MOSCATO D’ASTI E ASTI SPUMANTE one of the 14 Vinotheca from Piemonte.
We had a very nice lecture on the different styles of wines that exist here. Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti.
Maybe you have heard about the Methodo Martinotti before? Well it is nothing else than the today well known Charmat Method and the technique has his origins here in the center of Piemonte.
In over 52 munizpials all in Cuneo, Asti and Alexandria over 5000 families work on 10.000ha and an annual production of 90-100 Mio. bottles show the extreme importance to all aspects of life… the economy, territory & social life… it touches everyone.
In the whole economic history the Moscato grape all together with its wines had good and bad moments as well that had a big impact on the whole economy of Piemonte.
Two years ago though it had a fairly good moment with touching its record with an annual production of 106Mio.bottles. The forecast for this year though is 90-100Mio.bottles again. I do not want to go too much into detail, but if you consider the different products, Asti Spumante has a production of 17Mio.bottles and Moscato d’Asti has a production of 25 Mio.bottles.
But do we really know, what is the difference of both of these lovely wine styles?
Well it is easier than it looks like… there are three simple rules that I do want to explain at this moment with some of the key facts that stand behind:
Let us start with Asti Spumante:
To this wine style it is allowed to add sugar and at an alcohol level during fermentation you can stop it by cooling down. Usually the pressure in the bottle at that moment is around 2bars. With the isomeric gas transfer of another tank with the same amount of pressure but filled with CO2 and connected with a micro-filter (0,2microns) in between, the gasation is made in a very mild way.
Moscato d’Asti:
This type of wine is made in a similar way to Asti Spumante, nevertheless it differs in its wine style which is even more gentle, less alcoholic, less sweet and with even lighter body.
Tasting at Colline del Moscato
Boeri | Moscato d’Asti DOCG | Pale straw yellow, aromatic, white peach & blossom, honeyed, medium sweet, light body, elegant fresh. |
Bocchino giuseppe | Moscato d’Asti Canelli | Straw yellow colour with golden hints, persistent fine bubbles, very aromatic, ripe fruit, spiciness of sage and orange blossom, full round sweet taste, fresh and elegant acidity. |
Anna Ghione | Moscato d’Asti Canelli | Intense straw yellow colour, aromatic, muscat, orange blossom, fine bubbles, great balance, and honeyed sweetness. |
Coppo srl | Moscato d’Asti Canelli | Straw yellow colour yellow with greenish reflections. Floral nose, ripe white peach and pear. Fresh style, fine bubbles and aromatically balanced. |
Bera Vittorio e figli | Moscato d’Asti Canelli | Straw-yellow colour, aromas of fresh grapes, honey, white flowers and orange blossoms. Rich & sweet, still crisp acidity, well-balanced. |
Cascina Castlet | Moscato d’Asti | pale straw yellow with green hints, delicate bubbles, aromatic, white blossom and fruity, sweet, harmonic acid, low alcohol, rich, intense and long-lasting. |
Bera | Moscato d’Asti | Straw yellow colour, rich muscat aroma, yeastiness and flowers, sweet flavour, harmonic, balanced, delicate perlage and fine finish. |
Ca ed Cerutti | Moscato d’Asti | Straw yellow bright colour with golden hints, elegant nose, aroma of Moscato grapes, delicate bubbles. |
Terrabianca | Moscato d’Asti Vignot | Brilliant colour with elegant perlage, intense, fine, muscat, flowery, abricots. |
Marco Bianco | Moscato bianco secco | Elegant, dry wine, fine perlage, delicate nose, mintiness, white peach, hints of citrus, balance, good structure and sharp acids. |
Cerrino | Moscato d’Asti | Straw yellow, bright colour, intense spicy nose of sage and jasmine, delicate, fresh acidity and rich length. |
Ca ed Balos | Moscato d’Asti | Straw yellow colour, sweet, balancing acidity, delicate bubbles and persistent finish, intense nose of elderflowers, white peach and honeyed muscat flowers. |