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Moscato Giallo

Moscato Giallo is an aromatic white wine variety from North East Italy.

Moscato Giallo grapes ready for picking at Bassham Vineyard

What are passito wines?

Passito is a winemaking technique which involves drying the grapes to some extent before fermentation. This allows the sugars and flavours to become more concentrated. The process is most commonly associated with Northern Italy but is used widely.

Passito wines are most often sweet, but can be dry, the most famous dry wine made by this process is Amarone.

This is one of the extended Muscat family of grape varieties of which there are dozens. This particular variety is quite uncommon outside Northern Italy and nearby Switzerland.

Moscato of course is Italian for what Anglophones call Muscat. Giallo means yellow.

Like its relatives Moscato Giallo is aromatic and often used for sweet wines, both still and sparkling. Some makers use this variety to make Passito wines.

Various Muscat varieties have had a long history in Australia used mainly to make sweet or liqueur style wines. Moscato Giallo is a relative newcomer, with only a few producers thus far.

Australian winemakers hope that this variety is capable of making more elegant table wines with emphasis on the aromatics rather than the sweetness.

Look out for some good dry white varietals or other dry white blends containing this variety.

Moscato Giallo is one of the varieties described in my book Rare Ozzies. It includes comments from Mark Holm from Ringer Reef Wines and from Kathleen Quealy.