Gianni Doglia — Moscato d'Asti

Gianni Doglia

A small grower in Castagnole delle Lanze, in the Asti hills of Piedmont — the same country as Barolo and Barbaresco, but working with Moscato Bianco instead of Nebbiolo.

The wines

Moscato d'Asti DOCG is the estate's wine, alongside Casa di Bianca from the Canelli sub-zone. Both are lightly sparkling, low in alcohol — Moscato d'Asti sits around 5% by law — and sweet.

What to expect

Moscato d'Asti is not sparkling wine in the Champagne or Prosecco sense. It is barely fizzy, deliberately sweet, and about half the alcohol of a normal bottle. It is one of the few wines that works with Chinese dessert, with fruit, and with spicy food — and one of the few that a table of people who say they don't drink wine will finish.

Serving and keeping

Serve cold, 6–8°C. Drink the current vintage. Moscato d'Asti is made to be young and loses its aromatics within a couple of years — an old bottle is not a mature bottle, it is a flat one.