Sutter Home Moscato

In keeping with my earlier post, I'm trying Sutter Home table wines. Moscato is a varietal that is primarily categorized as a dessert wine. You can read about it here. The Sutter Home Moscato is a delicate, very pale, yellow, a little darker than champagne, and a little more yellow than Sauvignon Blanc. Even the aroma is sweet and strongly reminiscent of pears, with a touch of honeydew melon. The flavor is sweet, with a slightly acidic pear note. My first thought was that it reminded me of mead, but it is very grape-like, and not honey like. What made me think of mead (or honey) is that this Moscato has the slightly sweet musky taste of mead, because of the honey, or some melons. It is that "musky" quality that gives the grape, and the wine, its name.

According to the Sutter Home Web site, they've been making this wine for fifty years (remember, Sutter Home is a Trinchero Family Estates company) and it's made with Muscat grapes grown outside of Madera and Fresno in the Central Valley of California. The wine was cold fermented and aged entirely in refrigerated stainless steel tanks. It's a low 10% ABV, which is not unusual for a dessert style wine.

Sutter Home Moscato really and truly is a dessert wine. I'm honestly likely to be quite happy with a single glass as a dessert on its own, though a glass of this Moscato would be a lovely companion to a mascarpone based fresh fruit tart. I can see it working very well with a cheese plate of soft semi-sweet cheeses as well, or even fresh fruit—particularly strawberries, peaches or nectarines.