Batsiola Moscato

This is a moscato from Italy that they serve at Alexander's, an upscale restaurant in Salado, Texas. I enjoyed a glass on our wedding anniversary.

Caposaldo Moscato

This is the moscato they serve at the Legacy Hills Grill in Sun City, Texas. It is an Italian moscato. I would definitely order it again if we go back there! On their website, it says they also offer a sparkling peach moscato and a sweet pink merlot moscato. I bet they are delicious as well!

Cupcake Moscato d'Asti

With a name like Cupcake Moscato, it has to be good - and it is! This is the moscato they serve at Pignett's, an upscale Italian restaurant in Temple, Texas. It is made by Cupcake Vineyards in Livermore, California.

Enotria Moscato

This is the Moscato they serve at Eats on 8th - a great restaurant on the Georgetown Square. Unfortunately the portion they serve for $8 is very small, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. This Moscato is from Mendocino, California: http://www.grazianofamilyofwines.com/enotria#moscato

Chiarlo Moscato di Asti

This is a Moscato di Asti from Italy that is served at the Foxhole Culinary Tavern near Lakeline Mall (northwest of Austin). It is a very nice restaurant that we picked for our anniversary this year. The wine was delicious and I would definitely have it again.

Villa Alena Moscato D'Asti

They had this Moscato D'Asti for sale at the new Trader Joe's store that has opened in Austin. It was about $7 a bottle and was delicious! I would definitely buy it again!

Moscato in Maine

On a recent trip to Maine, I had Moscato at two different restaurants - the Reading Room Restaurant in Bar Harbor and DeMillo's on Portland's Long Wharf. The moscato they serve at the Reading Room restaurant is Menage a Trois moscato from California. The moscato they serve at DeMillo's is Conquista Moscato from Argentina. I would order both again.

Moscato for less than $5 a bottle?

Wal-Mart sells several moscatos for less than $5 a bottle. It is hard to imagine you could find a good moscato at that price, but since the cost to try them was so minimal, I decided I didn't have much to lose. One of the low-cost moscatos they carry is made by Barefoot, which makes quite a range of inexpensive wines. Their moscato sells for about $5 a bottle and is actually a pretty decent-tasting wine (I easily could have finished the glass, which I can't say for a lot of wines), but the packaging alone would make me hesitant to buy it again. The bottles come without corks and are instead sealed with a metal cap that is extremely difficult to remove. It would be very easy to cut yourself on the sharp edges of this cap.

Oak Leaf makes a moscato that sells for less than $3 a bottle and it is not bad, either. It has a light, fruity taste that is very smooth.

Prima Mazzo Moscato D'Asti

I picked up a bottle of this Prima Mazzo Moscato D'Asti on a whim because they had it temptingly displayed at HEB around Easter time for about $9 a bottle. It has a delicious light, fruity taste and I would definitely buy it again!

Lange Twins Estate Moscato

This moscato from the Lange Twins Winery in Lodi, California, is the moscato they serve at Baxter's on Main restaurant in Bastrop, Texas, which serves the best steak we have ever had. I thoroughly enjoyed a glass of it with my filet mignon. It is thick, sweet and fruity. One caution, though - it does go to your head pretty quickly!

Llano Estacado Moscato

For years, the Llano Estacado winery in Texas has made an excellent white table wine. So needless to say, I was excited when I saw that they had come out with a Moscato. I purchased it on sale at HEB for about $9 a bottle. Unfortunately it was a bit disappointing. It just didn't have a very sweet taste and seemed more like a muscat wine than a moscado. I'll probably end up using the remainder of the bottle for cooking.

Gallo

Gallo makes both a pink and a regular Moscato. I frequently see small bottles of both on sale at my local CVS pharmacy for $1 a bottle. The small size is nice because it is just enough for one glass and I don't have to worry about the rest of a bottle going bad before I can finish it. However, I would not recommend them, especially the pink. The taste is tart/bitter.

My Favorite So Far: Stella Rosa

My husband and I stumbled on the San Antonio Winery in Paso Robles during a recent trip to California. We had signed up for a wine country bicycle trip, and this happened to be the winery where the ride started and ended. It This was lucky for us because Paso Robles has so many wineries, we never would have found this one on our own.

The San Antonio winery makes two fruit-flavored Moscatos under the brand name of Stella Rosa. One is a peach-flavored Moscato and the other is a berry-flavored Moscato. Both of them are excellent! I liked them so much I bought a case with six of each to ship home to Texas. Even with shipping, the price came out to just around $11 a bottle, which is extremely reasonable considering how good this is.

The San Antonio Winery is actually headquartered in Los Angeles. Here's their website if you want to check them out: http://sanantoniowinery.com/

Introduction

For more than 25 years now, I've been visiting vineyards across the country. Mostly I like the ambiance, but every once in a while I find a wine that I like.

After tasting many different types of wine, I discovered that I have a preference for only one type: sweet white wine. Until recently, this meant I was limited to just a few options such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer. In the past few years, however, a new type of sweet white wine has taken the country by storm: moscato. Now almost every restaurant has a Moscato option on its wine list.

A good Moscato should be light, fruity and sweet. And it shouldn't give you a headache.

I decided to start this blog to help myself keep track of which Moscatos I like and don't like.

Happy reading (and tasting)!

Ellen