Moscato d'Asti — Piedmont's Delicate Sweet Sparkler

Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains has been cultivated in Piedmont since the Middle Ages — records of 'Moscatello' wine from the Canelli hills date to the 14th century. The DOCG designation for Moscato d'Asti was established in 1993, distinguishing it from the more commercial Asti Spumante. The Canelli subzone was elevated to its own DOCG in 2011.

Moscato d'Asti DOCG is one of Italy's most charming and misunderstood wines — a delicate, low-alcohol (5–5.5% ABV), lightly sparkling (frizzante, not fully sparkling), naturally sweet wine produced from Moscato Bianco (Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains) in the Canelli and Santo Stefano Belbo hills of Piedmont. Moscato d'Asti should not be dismissed as a simple sweet wine: in the finest expressions from producers like Vietti (Cascinetta), La Spinetta (Bricco Quaglia), and Paolo Saracco, it achieves a purity of floral expression — orange blossom, rose petal, white peach, apricot, and a hint of herbs — that is impossible to replicate in any other wine. The low alcohol results from stopping fermentation before completion using centrifugation or sterile filtration, retaining CO2 (the gentle fizz) and natural grape sugar. Unlike Asti Spumante (the fully sparkling, higher-pressure version), Moscato d'Asti is gentle, subtle, and at its finest, profoundly beautiful.

FOOD PAIRING: Moscato d'Asti is the ideal dessert wine for fruit-based dishes and light pastries from the Provenance 1000 recipes: Fresh Peaches with Amaretto (the quintessential Italian pairing), Strawberries with Cream, Panna Cotta, Cantucci con Vin Santo (the classic biscotti pairing), Panettone (Christmas), Peach Melba, Lemon Tart, Macarons. The low alcohol also makes it exceptional as an aperitivo with light savoury nibbles.