Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Moscatel Blanco was produced with grapes from ungrafted 50+-year-old pergola vines that fermented in concrete egg with indigenous yeasts and matured in egg for seven months. It has 13.5% alcohol and very good freshness and acidity. The nose is serious, aromatic, with herbal notes and Moscatel aromas of orange blossom and fresh grape pulp. They got the grapes riper, but the wine does not show it. They want to make a wine that develops with time, and with riper grapes, you get more aromas and flavors and achieve a fuller wine but still in balance. All whites develop some flor during their élevage. This fermented quite cloudy and the wine is not filtered, so it's a bit cloudy too.
While Muscat comes in a wide range of styles from dry to sweet, still to sparkling and even fortified, it's safe to say it is always alluringly aromatic and delightful. The two most important versions are the noble, Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, making wines of considerable quality and Muscat of Alexandria, thought to be a progeny of the former. Somm Secret—Pliny the Elder wrote in the 13th century of a sweet, perfumed grape variety so attractive to bees that he referred to it as uva apiana, or “grape of the bees.” Most likely, he was describing Muscat.
This very hot and arid region produces fine red wines from Bonarda, Syrah and Malbec and solid, fruity white wines from Pinot grigio, Viognier and Chardonnay.
MIWMMCARMOB22C_2022 Item# 2177046