#25- Muscat of Alexandria

This wine, as inappropriate as it is to dedicate to a four year old, is for Owen! It was his birthday party after all and we ate Spiderman cake! And while he ran around with his buddies, wearing a the helmet yours truly gave him to go with the yellow quad his parents gave him, the adults drank wine! And the special adults (yup, I'm special) had the most amazing dessert wine to go with the red and blue cake.

The wine we tried this week was part of the group of wines my sister Kristin brought home from the States as I can't find it anywhere in Alberta. The grape is the Muscat of Alexandria grape and the wine we tried is the Coppo Moncalvina Moscato D'Asti from Italy. With only a 5% alcohol content, you're not going to get drunk anytime soon on this wine. We had small portions to go with the cake as a dessert wine is more of a sipping wine than anything because it's so sweet. And this wine did not disappoint at all! It was delicious and the most disappointing part of it all was the bottle was only 375ml (half of the usual 750ml) so our wine did not go very far between five of us.

You could definitely taste the pear in this wine, a fruit I really like. I would definitely recommend this wine (if you can find it) to anyone looking for a nice dessert wine. The next time you're in the States, pick up a bottle or two for sure!

Craig and I have a busy long weekend ahead of us as we're heading out to the Rocky Mountains to do some more hiking in preparation for my trip to Nepal. I have brought five wines with me for us to try over three days so we'll see how we do!

The next wine on our list is the Chenin Blanc. 

#13- Muscat Blanc

Also known as Muscat to most of us who have drank this sweet dessert wine. And boy did this bottle of Muscat not disappoint. This wine- an organic winery from Bonterra Vineyards in California, US comes in a 375ml bottle. It cost approximately $17 to purchase so not a bad price point for a dessert wine. And could I just say that I love their website- it just makes you want to head back into wine country all over again! (okay, but I have to admit, I do hate that they make you enter your age to enter the site, it's not like it's porn or anything, a little over the top trying to be responsible I think).

Anyway, getting back to the wine. This is a delicious bottle and would recommend you go and try it. I was first introduced to the Muscat wine last summer on a tour of the Napa Valley. Not on the tasting list, we were lucky enough to be beside a young couple from San Diego (and wow, was he a beautiful beautiful man...I'm so digressing on this...) who asked to taste the Muscat. We just mosied are way into the tasting!

We tasted this wine the same night we tried a carmenere (wine #12). We paired this wine with pecan pie (I think, the memory is hazy here- does it look like pecan pie?) and the tartness of the dessert paired beautifully with the sweetness of the wine. You could really pull out the citrus taste (orange and lemon) from the wine and it was very aromatic. Delicious to drink and smell!


I did notice the wine left a very fulfilling taste in my mouth. Some describe it as 'grapey' but I'm not sure if that justifies it. Some wines leave your mouth never to be tasted again. But this wine lingered, a seconds reminder of the deliciousness that had just invaded your mouth.

Because it's a dessert wine, a small glass is sufficient. Though I will admit I could have drank the whole bottle myself. A dessert wine that satisfied the senses indeed!