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Sparkling December!

December is a Sparkling Month for the Italian Food, Wine & Travel Group
December is the perfect month for a sparkling focus, as we all have ample opportunities to celebrate in the coming weeks. Our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group is exploring all the different sparkling wines from Italy, including Prosecco, Franciacorta, Moscato d’Asti and others. Take a look further down in this post for links to all my #ItalianFWT buddies’ posts!

What is Moscato d’Asti?
Moscato d’Asti is a sweet, lightly sparkling wine from the Piemonte region of northwestern Italy. We enjoy Moscato d’Asti for it’s freshness and vibrance, it’s not a wine to cellar! Moscato d’Asti is made in a unique variation of the Charmat (tank) method. The method is perfectly described on the Vietti website:

“The grapes are crushed, pressed and naturally clarified. Must is kept without sulfites in a cold storage, at low temperature in order to naturally prevent fermentation. Before the bottling, we add yeast and temperature is increased to 12°-14° C. Alcoholic fermentation occurs in stainless steel pressured tanks to preserve natural CO2 from the fermentation. The fermentation is stopped at 5% Alc. by reducing again the temperature.
There is no malolactic fermentation to preserves acidity, varietal fruit character and freshness. The wine is held in stainless steel tanks until bottling.”

Cascinetta Vietti Moscato d’Asti DOCG 2017 ($16 at France 44 or online here)
Vietti is a historic family owned winery in the Piemonte region of northwestern Italy. Most famous for Barolo, the Vietti family grows grapes and makes the full range of Piemontese wines. Vietti wines are instantly recognizable in the wine store by the beautiful artwork on the labels. Each wine has its’ own unique artwork. I’ve enjoyed a wide variety of their wines and now I can add their Moscato d’Asti to my recommended list!

Eye: Clear, pale lemon with initially bubbly mousse, followed by persistent fine bubbles suspended in the wine.
Nose: Clean, medium+ intensity. Intense aromas of bright ripe fruit: grapes, lemons, baking spices, very fresh flowers. It’s the aroma a “lemon breeze” cleaning product dreams it could achieve.
Mouth: Sweet with balancing high acidity. Refreshing with an effervescent lift. Delightful flavor of moscato grapes, lemons, green apples. Nice medium+ sweet finish. On a trip a few years ago, we had the opportunity to taste moscato grapes alongside a Moscato d’Asti wine. It’s one of the few wines anywhere in the world in which the wine actually tastes of the grape!

Tiramisu is not a Piemontese dessert, you’ll never see it in the region in Italy. It is, however, delicious and pairs beautifully with Moscato d’Asti!

Dessert Choices with Moscato d’Asti
While Moscato d’Asti is sweet, don’t go overboard with the richness or sweetness of your dessert. Fruit and creamy desserts are perfect, keep them on the lighter side. I stopped at Broder’s Cucina, our local Italian Deli, for a good choice, hoping they might have panna cotta.  No luck this time but a nice single serve tiramisu proved just as nice pairing with the lightly fizzy wine. The Italian classic holiday cake, panettone, would also be an excellent choice.

Italian Sparkling Wine Discoveries from Italian Food, Wine & Travel Buddies
If you see this note soon enough, please join our chat on Twitter – whether you posted or not.  We love visitors and happily chat and answer questions. Simply follow the  #italianfwt hashtag on Twitter this Saturday, December 1st at 11am ET/8am PT.

• Lynn Gowdy of Savor the Harvest suggests a Medley of Italian Sparkling Wines #ItalianFWT
• Jeff of foodwineclick want us to add some “Sparkle Your Dessert with Moscato d’Asti“
• Jen of Vino Travels~An Italian Wine Blog will be sharing  Spaghetti with Clams and a Flight of Adami Prosecco
• Cam of Culinary Adventures with Camilla will be dishing up Italian Bubbles + Lasagna Bianca.
• Wendy of A Day In the Life on a Farm will be Celebrating Leftovers
• Kat of Bacchus Travel and Tours show us how Italian Sparklers to Light Up Your Holidays
• Lauren of the The Swirling Dervish gives us A Trio of Italian Sparkling Wines for Your Holiday Table
• Gwendolyn of the Wine Predator serves up Shrimp Pasta and Italian Sparkles from Franciacorta for Your Holiday Table
• Nicole of Somm’s Table shares Classically Contratto: Beautiful Wines from Italy’s Oldest Sparkling Wine House
• Katarina of Grapevine Adventures offers A Superior Sparkling Christmas With Bele Casel
• Susannah at Avvinare shares Lambrusco for the Holidays
• Martin at ENOFYLZ Wine Blog, shares  A Distinctive Due of Italian Sparkling Wines
  

Finally, here are a few images of other Italian sparkling wines I’ve featured in the past

Let’s pour a bit of sparkling wine before we sit down to brunch, shall we?

Glera is the grape Prosecco is made from. This was a unique version that didn’t fit in the official DOC rules (by intent of the winemaker)

Adami is a very good Prosecco producer with a number of different wines.

You don’t see this every day: skin-fermented sparkling Malvasia!

We don’t see Alta Langa wines in Minnesota, so we enjoy them all the more in Italy.

Franciacorta wines are made in the same exacting standards as those from Champagne region in France.