ASTI SPUMANTE/ASTI

[Drew]

Asti is an Italian DOGC Zone and Spumante is a sparkling wine.

Barbera is the everyday wine of the Piedmont. This popular red cultivated in far greater quantities than its better-known neighbors on hills along the Po River, is one of the region’s two most widely cultivated grapes. The other is often overlooked in all the attention lavished on the super premium Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo wines. That grape is Moscato Bianco, which gives us sparkling Asti
Spumante and the only slightly less ebullient
Moscato d’Asti. Even though sweet sparkling wine may have fallen out of fashion in the press, Asti’s sparkling wines arrive in amazing quantities on store shelves and dinner tables. In 2003, DOCG producers turned out 14 million gallons of bubbly. Asti is the most productive DOCG zone of Italy. Asti Spumante is usually crisper and more aromatic than its serious but sweeter Moscato sibling, although winemaking techniques often alter those differences. The best Spumante and the best Moscato
are distinguished by their harmonious blend of peach and apricot sweetness and tangy but pleasing acidity. The Spumante is preferable as an appetizer and the Moscato as a dessert wine, but they are interchangeable and are pleasant companions with any course at table.


The above was taken from the below article.

http://www.italianmade.com/library/PDFs/Vinotizie200412.pdf

Drew