Flavor descriptors:
Exotically perfumed nectarines, wild peaches, white blossoms and honey lead to a delightfully refreshing palate on our sweet Moscato d’Oro wine. Named after the Italian word for the Muscat grape and gold (Oro), this is a youthful expression of a variety with ancient roots in the gloriously sun-splashed islands of Greece.
Vintage:
The 2017 harvest started early following a summer of heat spikes and a growing season that began with significant rain, ending a five-year drought. While the heat waves were a concern, retained water in the quenched soils helped us maintain vigorous vines and plump, juicy clusters of fruit through the growing season. A series of wildfires at the beginning of October made international headlines, but the early harvest ensured the majority of our grapes were picked and already processed in the cellar before the fires began. The grapes for our fragrantly expressive Moscato d’Oro were picked between September 8th and September 30th.
Vineyards:
Moscato di Canelli, which makes our Moscato d’Oro, is the name of a small-berried Muscat variety which has long been treasured in Italy. Muscat is one of the oldest recorded grape varieties in the history of wine. In Greek mythology, its luxurious floral, perfume, stone fruit and spice flavors are said to have been reserved solely for the gods. We make our Moscato d’Oro in very small quantities and all of the grapes were harvested from a single block on our Wappo Hill Vineyard, in the heart of Napa Valley’s Stag’s Leap District. Robert Mondavi began producing this sweet, intensely perfumed wine in the 1960s to complement his dry wine portfolio and as a nod to his Italian roots.
WInemaking:
By harvesting the grapes over numerous, labor-intensive pickings between September 4th and September 14th, we capture an array of aromas and flavors from citrus and floral notes of the lower-maturity fruit to the spicy, tropical character of riper fruit. The hand-picked grapes were gently pressed as whole-clusters to retain the delicate fruity flavors and we inoculated the juice with a yeast strain selected to heighten the inherent floral character of our beautiful Muscat. We stopped the slow, cool fermentation when the natural sweetness reached optimal balance with the acidity. The wine was bottled early, in February of 2018, to retain freshness and fruitiness.
Total acid: 5.3 g/L
Final pH: 3.23
Residual sugar: 76 g/L
Alcohol: 8 % by volume
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