WhiteLead grape in 9
Moscato Bianco
Also called Moscato, Moscato Reale.
The aromatic white behind Asti and Moscato d'Asti, grown on the hills between Alba and Asti and in patches all down the peninsula. Picked and fermented cold, stopped while the sugar is still there, it gives a wine of grape, orange blossom and elderflower at five or six degrees of alcohol. Moscato d'Asti is the gentler, barely fizzy version, and the one to drink.
Worth knowing
It is one of the oldest cultivated grape varieties we can trace, and the only common wine grape whose wine tastes recognisably like the grape itself. The compounds responsible are in the skins, which is why the wine is made with as little handling and as little heat as possible.
Where it is allowed16 appellations