Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Like other red-berried
Moscato
s, this variety
also has an elongated, pyramidal, medium-
large bunch and ripens in late September or
early October; its berries are smaller than most,
and have very thin skins, making them suscep-
tible to botrytis. The fl owers are physiologically
female only, and so Moscato Rosa needs
another pollinating variety present in the vine-
yards to avoid poor fruit set. Furthermore, it's
affected by
millerandage,
making for very
scrawny-looking bunches and often very low
productivity. According to Willi Sturz, the
winemaker at the excellent Tramin estate in
Italy, Moscato Rosa is great for air-drying, as it
dehydrates easily and quickly, “but it's miserly
and I can attest it's a very irregular producer,
due to poor fruit set—and its thin skins mean
it's very susceptible to fl owering issues should
it rain. In some vintages, half of the potential
production can be lost.” Wally Plattner of the
Waldgries estate points out that its diffi cult
fl owering often causes bunches to have berries
of different sizes and ripeness levels, never a
good thing, as unripe berries have to be manu-
ally removed in order to avoid making wines
with green or vegetal fl avors.
dehydrate faster. For this reason, he points out
that the area of Santa Maddalena, loaded with
sandy soils, is ideal. On clay it tends to be very
vigorous, but the water retention capacity of
such soils appears to heighten the aromatics in
the fi nal wine. Sturz believes the best results
are obtained by harvesting the grapes late
instead of air-drying them, since the former
technique maintains freshness and preserves
the typical aromas and fl avors of the variety,
which tend to become jammy and less refi ned
when the grapes are air-dried. A good moscato
rosa is a thing of beauty for its extremely fl oral
yet fruity aromas and fl avors of rose, red cherry,
strawberry jelly, and raspberry, together with
notes of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Over
the years, I have found that Moscato Rosa is the
perfect wine to have people try when they say
wine is not to their liking. Even those reluctant
imbibers usually succumb to this beautifully
colored, intensely perfumed sweet wine. The
only high-quality non-Italian wine made with
Moscato Rosa I know of is made in Austria: the
Rosenmuskateller Trockenbereenauslese by
Kracher is an extremely luscious and sweet
wine that is utterly irresistible. Just beware that
many “Pink Muscat” wines made outside Italy
are in reality, almost always, wines made with
Moscato Bianco to which a small percentage of
juice or wine from red-berried varieties (Syrah,
Durif, and more) is added. These are often
made in a sparkling mode as well. They are
therefore not, in any way, to be taken as typical
of what Moscato Rosa and its wines are all
about.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Most common in Alto Adige, DOC wines
labeled Alto Adige Moscato Rosa (or Rosen-
muskateller) are best. Also worth a look are
Trentino Moscato Rosa (though Moscato Rosa
comprises only a minimum of 80 percent of
the wine, as opposed to Alto Adige's 85 percent)
and the Moscato Rosa made in DOC Friuli
Isonzo of Friuli Venezia Giulia. There are spo-
radic plantings in Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna,
and even Lazio, while I am tempted to specu-
late that Lombardy's old vines of Moscato Rosa
might be of the Breganze variety. There are
some mainly experimental and limited plant-
ings in Austria, Germany, and Croatia.
Moscato Rosa wine is made in both a rare,
lighter-styled but still sweet wine and as a thick,
creamy, and very sweet
passito.
Plattner feels
that sandy soils are ideal for sweet wine produc-
tion with this variety since the grapes tend to
wines to try:
For Alto Adige Passito, try:
Schloss Sallegg***, Tramin*** (Terminum),
Waldgries*** (Passito), Franz Haas**, Muri
Gries**, Abbazia di Novacella* (Praepositus),
Bolzano* (Rosis), Colterenzio* (Rosatum), Gir-
lan* (Pasithea Rosa), and Kettmeier* (Athesis).
For Trentino, try: Zeni*** (Rosa; once light and
fragrant, now very rich and sweet), Maso Mar-
tis* *, Gaierhof*, Maso Bergamini*, Letrar i*,
and Battistotti*. For Friuli Venezia Giulia, try:
Emilio Bulfon*.
