Santi Moscato: More Than A Dessert Wine

December 16th, 2011

Moscato...great with cheeses & desserts...& so much more

By Steve Mirsky

I’m always impressed when a wine visually reflects its terroir. You actually begin getting to know it just by pouring. My most recent instance of this was when I tasted Santi Moscato Montedoro 2010. Santi Moscato grapes are grown in Italy’s Trentino region on foothills of the Dolomite Mountains. The word “Montedoro” is derived from the golden hue reflected on the pointed spires of these mountains at sunset.

Upon first taste, this wine has enough sugar to lull you into the assumption that it can only be a dessert wine, but it would be a disservice to limit it to that. Light white unspiced fish and chicken along with a fresh steamed vegetable side is sure to get the possibilities started. Soba noodle soup also immediately comes to mind. This golden-hued mead has ripe melon on the nose with a tight underlying effervescence upon swallowing giving it a lively kick to the palette. Otherwise tropical fruit sweet and smooth…consistent from sip to swallow. For me, it deftly exposed the earthy flavor dimensions of the black truffles in the Sottocenere cheese I paired it with.

Hurricane Irene, as everyone knows, inflicted only a glancing blow on New York City, but in the suburbs and beyond it was a much different story. The day after, we spent most of the day cleaning up around our house in eastern Long Island, and now it was time for some (hopefully) good wines.

Irene knocked out power to our entire town, along with about half a million other homes and businesses throughout the island. There was no damage to our place but lots of branches and leaves blanketed the property. Down the street some big trees were down, one crashing on a main power line, closing the road, another a huge weeping willow blown over, narrowly missing the historic home next to it. Fortunately for us our neighbors have a   big emergency generator and they were nice enough to let us run an extension line from their house to ours. Candlelight is fine for a night, but the adventure quickly gives way to frustration.

With the lights on we were able to start preparing a decent meal and went with a simple favorite – penne tossed with crisply sautéed Italian sausage and broccoli rabe. As we cooked we started off with what turned out to be just the right aperitif wine – a light and lively Italian rose, Santi’s 2010 Infinito, a Bardolino  from the Veneto region. Salmon colored, the blend is 65 percent corvina, 30 percent rondinella and five percent molinara. It was an instant hit with its cherry and strawberry flavors accented by some herbal notes and a touch of lime rind. Fruity and refreshing, it was great for casual drinking with alcohol at just 11.5 percent. The suggested retail price is $11. (Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York.)

A Toast to Summer's End

Rosé doesn’t deserve its bad rep. Do the wine justice. Now.

By Joe Roberts

Recommendations

• Rosé Recommendations • More by Joe Roberts

After being hit by what seems like the 32nd heat wave to plague the greater Delaware Valley this summer, I’m looking forward to flicking the season the bird on its way out and toasting the advent of cooler days ahead. My choice for sending this summer on its don't-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-your-way-out death-march? Without a doubt, it's Rosé.

Rosé is emphatically not just for springtime imbibing, though you'd be forgiven for believing it's a springtime-only beverage given the explosion of Rose’s media coverage when April showers turn to May flowers. But Rosé wines offer enough variety in tastes, aromas, and complexity – and at such reasonable prices - that you could drink a different one every other week throughout the year and not get bored with the style.

The fact that Rosé is pink should be the last thing that deters you from trying it. Sure, we've all been conditioned to think that guzzling down pinkish White Zinfandel is the social equivalent of wearing white after Labor Day, but not all Rosé is sweet plonk. In fact, many of them are downright beguiling, let alone good buys.

The methods for making Rosé are almost as varied as the choices of Rosé wine available, but they generally fall into three categories:

1) Saignee (or "bleeding") - When making red wines, producers sometimes "bleed" off a bit of juice to further intensify the red wine. The pink stuff that is bled off is sometimes made into its own wine - Rosé.

2) A Touch of Skin – Red-skinned grapes can be crushed, but the juice is only given a short period of contact with the skins (usually less than three days) to impart flavor and just a tinge of color.

3) Blending - This is the (thankfully) least common method, consisting of blending white and red wines together. It's sort of like the content of the spit bucket at a wine tasting, only without the spitting (though I imagine the resulting tastes might be similar).

The first thing you might notice when you start to explore Rosé-land is the differences in color of the wines, which vary in intensity from pale pink to watermelon to a light blood-red. It's one of the greatest things about Rosé wines – they try to seduce you with color before you even pop the cork. Rosé also comes in a wide variety of aromas and flavors - just about everything in the berry patch can pop out at you when drinking Rosé, from under-ripe raspberry to candied strawberries to red rose petals. Styles can range from light-and-fruity, to sweet-and-tangy to complex-and-spicy, and the more food-friendly Rosés can astound when paired with the right fare.

Getting into Rosé will take some experimenting, but the payoff for the brave-of-heart just might be finding a new go-to, everyday sipper. To help you get started, I've listed three locally available and well-priced Rosés. Enjoy!

Rosé Recommendations

2009 Paul Jaboulet "Parallele 45" Rosé Cotes du Rhone, France $14.79 Jaboulet proves that France still wears the crown when it comes to Rosé. Named after their vineyard location on the 45th latitude, this wine combines the staple wine grapes of the Rhone (Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah) into a tangy and enticing mix of red cherry and floral aromas. 2009 El Coto de Rioja Rosado Rioja, Spain $14.99 If you're the impatient type who picks raspberries before they're quite ripe, this is your Rosé. A blend of equal parts Tempranillo (the main grape of Rioja redwine) and Garnache (same as Grenache), El Coto offers a refined Rosé with sour red berry notes at an attractive price. 2009 Santi “Infinito” Rosé of Bardolino Veneto, Italy $13.99 Made the same grapes that make Italy's Valpolicella red wines (Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara), Infinito is produced in a similar manner, party using a small amount of grapes that have been dried for two months. The result is still fruity (think Strawberries) but with additional complexity (think dried fruit and raisin flavors).

Joe Roberts is a wine consultant and musician. He is the author of 1WineDude.com, which was