How sweet it is!
I’m not really sure how some of these things happen. Everything will be right with the world and then for no reason, from out of left field, seemingly with no warning, we are face to face with a…wine trend!! Explaining the Pinot Noir craze of a few years ago is easy--the movie "Sideways." We tried to get our guests to try Pinot Noir for years, without much luck, but Hollywood makes one anti-Merlot, pro-Pinot movie and the world pulls up their Merlot vines to plant Pinot Noir. Now we are faced with another wine fad…Moscato. This is one that I can’t seem to explain how or exactly when it occurred. All I know is that we had to build a new warehouse just to hold all of them…well, not really, but we sure have a bunch of 'em.
Now ask any Sauternes, Tokaji, BA or TBA aficionado about sweeter style wines and he will go on with poetic eloquence on the virtues of botrytis cinerea. Mention Moscato and watch as his nose heads north with unabashed pretentiousness. The way I see it as a retailer, is that if these legions of Moscato drinkers were not drinking Moscato, they would not be drinking wine at all. It is a good introduction to the world of wine and will almost certainly lead to an introduction to other more substantial or dare I say…respected wines.
Moscato is hardly new; it is grown in most all of the major and minor wine making countries in the world. From the Moscato d’Asti and Asti Spumantes of Italy, Moscatel in Spain, Beames de Venise in France and the sweet wines of the Rutherglen region of Australia--just to name a few--this world renowned grape is deserving of much more respect than it seems to receive from the wine drinking public at large. With the hot summer months about to begin, I’m sure the sales of these sweet-to-really sweet, drink-them-cold wines will grow even more astronomically than they presently are. So to those who enjoy these wines…cheers! To those wine snobs…gulp, like me?? Deal with it, people are laughing at you each time you’re caught swirling and sniffing every beverage you’re served…from water to iced tea!
Ken Amendola, North Florida Wine Supervisor
Follow me on Twitter @abcwinekena