La Caudrina and the return of Asti Spumante

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La Selvatica Asti Spumante

I possibly cannot stress as to how important the grape Moscato is. I mean in Italy is one of the oldest varietals, in Piedmont alone has been growing since the 1300’s, and also they have discovered some of its mutations include Chardonnay and Chasselas. Pretty cool huh? They have also found that the molecules in Moscato are responsible for the aromas and flavors that you will also find in Pineapple, honey, and sage.

On to taste some Moscato, come on don’t make that face. Living in Piemonte where it is very important to finish a meal with Moscato, I now have really come to appreciate this wine/grape. It is amazing how the aromatics of Moscato when you eat the grape and taste then the semi sweet sparking wines from Asti (Moscato d’Asti or Asti Spumante) you understand exactly how wonderful this grape varietal really is. Even the grappa made from Moscato is much more enjoyable thanks to these aromatics.

The Dogliotti family two generations of wine making but have been Moscato farmers for many more generations, are the kindest, most generous, and loudest people that I know. They are real Piedmontiés. And the wines that they make and the grapes that the family harvests are an important piece of Piedmont history and culture. I have been tasting a lot of Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti around these parts and I cannot say enough that hands down my favorite wines are from La Caudrina. Every year they have such a wonderful expression of the fruit, the acidity is bright and the wine is dangerously gulpable. Good thing it only has a max of 7% alcohol!

La Selvatica is taking it’s name from “the wild” would be it’s direct translation. They came up with this name for the wine because there once was an abandond cascina where their winery is today. This cascina had “wild” moscato growing all around it. By wild could be that it looked like it was a jungle because it was coming from a vineyard that had been abandoned. The woman on the label is one of Romano Levi's drawings (La donna selvatica).  I will talk about him and his importance another day.

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