A Classic Italian Combination: Asti Spumante and Panettone.

Bread and butter, wine and cheese:  some things are just meant to go together.  Asti Spumante and Panettone belong on that list of perfect combinations.

Asti Spumante DOCG and Moscato d’Asti DOCG come from the Moscato Bianco (Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains) strain of grapes.  It is one of the oldest known varieties of wine grapes and grows in the Piedmont regions of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato. The zone is located between the Ligurian Coast and the Alps.

Moscato d’Asti is made from the same grape as Asti Spumante and has many of the same flavors and aromas. It is also low in alcohol, around 5% by volume. The difference is that Moscato d’Asti is only slightly sparkling (frizzante) and it is vintage dated, while Asti Spumante is not dated and is considered a Spumante. Moscato d’Asti should be drunk as close to the vintage date as possible. The two wines share the same DOCG.

For Asti Spumante the grapes are refrigerated at zero degrees until they reach a second fermentation, a process that can be accomplished either according to the “Martinotti Method” or  the complex “Classico Method.” Recently, the range of residual sugars has been expanded from traditional sweet to extra dry, from brut to pas dosé. Asti Spumante is known world wide as a sparkling wine to be drunk every time there is a reason to celebrate.

For Moscato d’Asti, there is a gentle pressing of the grape bunches by a pneumatic press. The must is clarified in order to eliminate the solid residue and any other undesired components it may contain. Alcoholic fermentation takes place through the addition of select yeasts at a controlled temperature.  The limpid and cooled must is poured into large tanks and repeatedly filtered to prevent spontaneous fermentation. Moscato d’Asti does not go through a second fermentation in the bottle.  Instead, the second fermentation is performed in a single tank (autoclave) using the Martinotti method, in which bubbles are trapped in the wine via carbonation in the tank. Yeasts are eliminated by filtration or centrifugation. The wine is then kept in cooling tanks at about -3C so that fermentation does not start.  At the time of bottling, the temperature is raised until fermentation begins.  It is stopped at about 5% alcohol. Fermentation can be stopped and then started so that the wine can be bottled several times a year. This aromatic wine should be enjoyed young when it is at its freshest.

Both Moscato d’Asti and Asti Spumante have aromas of apricot, pear, peach, honeysuckle, mandarin orange, jasmine and white flowers.

I was able to taste and enjoy both wines along with traditional Panettone from Brooklyn’s own Settepani Bakery.

Panettone is a sweet Italian traditional Christmas cake. It comes in many different varieties and can contain raisins, nuts, chocolate, candied citrus and other fruits, and more.  Some are iced while others are glazed or topped with sugar crystals,

Chef Bilena Settepani from Settepani supplied the Panettone

We were served slices of three different varieties of panettone and I enjoyed them all.

Here are just a few of the wines I tasted:  

Balbi Soprani Asti Dolce

Caudrina La Salvatica Asti (Label by the late legendary grappa producer Romano Levi)

Ceretto I Vignaioli di San Stefano Moscato d’Asti

Bava Bass Tuba Moscato d’Asti

Braida (Giacomo Bologna) “Vigna Senza Nome” Moscato D’ Asti

Panettone with Asti Spumante or Moscato d’Asti is the perfect way to entertain guests this holiday season.