Hello All,

Last night I tried a Muscat dessert wine for the first time; for specifics
it was the 2003 Quady Winery "Elysium." I know that finding out what one
likes is based on trying different brands/wineries/vintages of a given
varietal, but I have a questions about the wine I had:

It was HOT! The label said 15% alcohol, but my nose made it seem like much
more. Is it normal for muscat to have a distinct alcohol aroma, or did I
accidentally pick up the Smirnoff-Muscat variety?

Other than than that I enjoyed it quite a bit, although my brain kind of
slipped and I poured too much, thinking "this is a red wine," not "this is
dessert wine."

Thanks for your input,

Joe

--

There are several varieties of the Muscat grape grown around the world
that can be made in styles from dry to very sweet and from low alcohol
to fortified. So you might like to experiment. I have a few bottles of
Quady Muscats, and they all give 15% alcohol on the label. Quady is
located at San Joaquin in Madera California. I don't know exacty where
the vineyards are located for the Muscat grapes they use. However that
area is plenty hot to allow very ripe grapes that can produce very full
wines.

Elysium is made from the black muscat grape. Quady also makes Essencia
from the "orange blossom" muscat and Electra. You might try these other
two to see if you like them better. They are consideraby different in
taste. Also the wine you had was quite young. It is possible that it
might become more smooth with a little more age. Some Muscats are ready
soon and then decline fairly fast. Others have been known to last well
over 100 years.

Most wine growing countries produce Muscats. Portugal and Italy have
some that are famous. You will even find some Muscats made into a light
sparkling wine, especially from Italy. Most of these Muscats are not
very expensive, so go to a store, ask someone there what Muscats they
have, and try a few. If the store is not helpful, try another one. The
spelling of Muscat will of course vary for different languages, but it
often is close enough to English to understand - Moscato, Moscatel, etc.



Reply to .

I've had this wine recently and I don't remember it being so hot, that
being said it should be a fortified wine at 15% alc- the type of brandy
used to stop fermentation can vary widely. Unaged brandy can taste more
hot than aged brandy, and if the wine is too light in body or flavor it
wont mask the alc flavor too well. You might have the same impression of
other fortified muscats, try some and see.

I bought a Powers 2004 Muscat Canelli the other day (Columbia Valley
Washington) , the alcohol content is 12%. It's very light and fruity
(apples). I can see how something ike this would be similar to a sparkling
wine flavor. I tried the Essencia a few years ago because I do like sweeter
wines...it's strength put me off too. I think it got some good reviews
though from some places. ::shrug::

Melinda

--
"The country has entered an era in which
questions are not asked, for questions are
daughters of disquiet or arrogance, both
fruits of temptation and the food of sacrilege." Djaout

Try looking for Moscato D'asti, from various producers- they are usually
around 5-7% alc and very fruity.

I wouldn't guess that it should have been so HOT that all caps were
required!

I can suggest a couple of Austrian wines from the Muscat-Ottonel grape,
which is in the Muscat family:

Velich Muscat-Ottonel Beerenauslese 2001. This dessert wine (115 g/l
residual sugar) has 14.5% alcohol, but I would never describe it as
being hot. I dug up this review of the wine from Wine Enthusiast
magazine, which gave it 93 points & made it an "Editors Choice": Rich
and viscous in the mouth, this is a sweet wine with some intriguing
notes. Hints of thyme join orange marmalade scents on the nose, while
the flavors bring in nuances of chocolate and herbs. Lasts a long time
on the finish.

Feiler-Artinger does a Spatlese with 50 g/l residual sugar, which is
part of their Quartet wines. This is off-dry, not dessert, with 12%
alcohol & it comes in a 750 ml bottle. Again, I wouldn't describe it as
hot, but this one certainly drinks more like a "regular wine" than a
half-bottle of sticky.

e.

in article , kenneth mccoy at
wrote on 3/8/05 9:16 AM:

> Try looking for Moscato D'asti, from various producers- they are usually
> around 5-7% alc and very fruity.
>


My thought exactly. Our favorite is "Nivole" from Michele Chiarlo, an
Italian producer. It's 100% Muscato Bianco. Around US$9 for 375ml, here in
California. Very light, fruity and refreshing. Maybe too refreshing ;o).

I do have a question though, about it's alcohol content, for anyone who
might be knowledgeable of labeling. The fact sheet for Nivole says "MINIMUM
ALCOHOL: potential 12%; developed 5.5%". What does that mean exactly? That
same fact sheet says the fermentation is stopped at 5.5% by "a sterile
filtration which removes any remaining live yeasts". If the wine in the
bottle is 5.5% alcohol, why do they reference the "potential" number???

In ,
Midlife > typed:

> I do have a question though, about it's alcohol content, for
> anyone
> who might be knowledgeable of labeling. The fact sheet for
> Nivole
> says "MINIMUM ALCOHOL: potential 12%; developed 5.5%". What
> does
> that mean exactly? That same fact sheet says the fermentation
> is
> stopped at 5.5% by "a sterile filtration which removes any
> remaining
> live yeasts". If the wine in the bottle is 5.5% alcohol, why
> do
> they reference the "potential" number???


This might be something of an oversimplification, but essentially
"potential alcohol" refers to the amount of sugar in the grapes.
It's the amount of alcohol you would get if all that sugar were
to be fermented into alcohol. To make a sweet wine, some of that
sugar is left unfermented, so the actual alcohol is lower than
the potential.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

At one time BATF, the folks who gave us WACO, had a minimum alcohol level of
5%; which meant that if you had a wine with less than 5% alcohol, they'd not
approve the wine. Technically it was no longer wine and was treated as a
food product. There were several moscato producers whose wine challenged
this parameter. If for some reason US customs seized or inspected the
container and found that the wine was more than 1% over or under what it
said on the BATF approved label or under 5%, action would be taken against
the importer.

Is this still happening? I always advised putting at least 7% on the label
to avoid inspection problems.

--
Joseph B. Rosenberg
"Ken Blake" > wrote in message
...
> In ,
> Midlife > typed:
>
> > I do have a question though, about it's alcohol content, for
> > anyone
> > who might be knowledgeable of labeling. The fact sheet for
> > Nivole
> > says "MINIMUM ALCOHOL: potential 12%; developed 5.5%". What
> > does
> > that mean exactly? That same fact sheet says the fermentation
> > is
> > stopped at 5.5% by "a sterile filtration which removes any
> > remaining
> > live yeasts". If the wine in the bottle is 5.5% alcohol, why
> > do
> > they reference the "potential" number???
>
>
> This might be something of an oversimplification, but essentially
> "potential alcohol" refers to the amount of sugar in the grapes.
> It's the amount of alcohol you would get if all that sugar were
> to be fermented into alcohol. To make a sweet wine, some of that
> sugar is left unfermented, so the actual alcohol is lower than
> the potential.
>
> --
> Ken Blake
> Please reply to the newsgroup
>
>

I remember at least one wine- a Hungarian Eszencia that claimed only 3%
alc, that I almost purchased in S.F. about 6 years ago. At $250 U.S. it
would have been my most expensive wine ever.

I just did a google search for another wine I almost bought, it was a
Zind-Humbrecht pinot gris Clos Jebsal s.g.n. Trie Speciale 1994- this
one is listed at only 4% alc. I should have paid the $250 when I had the
chance.