Says Anthony Nicalo of Farmstead Wines with a smile, “It’s my breakfast wine.” We’re comparing tasting notes on one of his Italian Moscatos, reviewed here today. In a few weeks, the intriguing portfolio of this relative newcomer to the B.C. wine-importing scene will be up for discussion in this spot.

He’s right, and he’s not the first to say so. Jancis Robinson, in her big Oxford Companion to Wine, just takes longer to get to that nugget: “[Among its] main virtues are its delicacy, its intensely musky aromas, a sweetness that is as much suggested as forthrightly declared; its definition as ‘the perfect breakfast wine’ contains a nugget of jocular truth”. Why, that’s practically poetry.

We’re all about truth in this corner, jocular or otherwise, so a quick tour through the world of Moscato, then, stopping primarily in Italy, which is where it has its origin and reaches its apotheosis.

The word Moscato is simply Muscat in Italian, from the grape moscato bianco, which generally makes up 100 percent of the wine. (Sometimes it’s called moscato di Canelli, and as such is often found in California, called Muscat Canelli; we found one here in B.C. to start the tasting.)

It’s a sweet, low-alcohol wine—often as little as five percent, sometimes even less, occasionally a touch more, but generally acknowledged as being best around 5.5 percent—made mostly in Asti and nearby wine regions of Italy. It is a huge favourite at home, being the fourth most-planted grape variety in the country.

A relative of the world-famous Asti Spumante sparkling wine, that’s where its familiarity comes from. Don’t tell me you haven’t had some. Maybe at graduation.

Moscato d’Asti is another relative: often slightly fizzy (with barely one atmosphere of pressure inside the bottle, making it not nearly so sparkling, or spumante, as the more famous bubbly).

It sometimes serves as an apéritif but truly comes into its own as a dessert wine—especially with fruit, fresh or marinated, and fruit-based desserts. I’ve seen it described as being perfect with pound cake and terrific with chocolate truffles, and found it described as “one of the world’s great wine styles” and “one of the most refreshing wines in the world”.

Those quotes are from the Beverage Testing Institute, which also lists “premier producers” of Moscatos on their site (none of them are available in B.C. at the moment, although one of their “great producers”—Michele Chiarlo—has one available here, the costliest one, at $17.99 for a 375-millilitre bottle. Moscato is generally an acquired taste, but it sure is easy to acquire. All of our tasters are 750-millilitre bottles.

Montevina Terra d’Oro Moscato California 2006 ($19.95) This brings a whopping (for Moscato) 10 percent alcohol to the breakfast table, plus a deep green-gold colour and meadow-flower aromas all along the palate’s receptors. It has a little of that floral-sachet quality, but the finish is fleeting; it’s quite a bit weightier than most of what’s to follow, but it’s a good introduction and a good price. Pretty bottle too—just the thing for a single long-stemmed rose.

Mionetto Moscato delle Venezie Frizzante n/v ($20.95 from the Sutton Place Wine Merchant) This comes with a convenient beer-bottle cap; just be careful using the “bottle opener” in the doorjamb of the motel bathroom. This is the fizzy kind, which always suggests to me that it’s got to be good for the digestion. The seven percent alcohol doesn’t feel like it. The label says it’s “the casual moscato to enjoy anytime”, which has a glimmer of truth in it—if only it were half the price. Water-pale, with lovely, light fruit and lots of little fresh bubbles, it sat just right with an improvised Portuguese-inspired pork and clam platter. First one to empty—always a telling sign.

Batasiolo Moscato d’Asti 2007 ($22.95, also from Sutton Place) This one posed the nice-to-be-in dilemma: is it tastier still or fizzy? It presents a whole new way of looking at food wine: a touch of sweet, a spot of sparkle—who’d have thought it? This one works wonders with salty pastas, maybe white anchovies and fresh thyme, or grilled pineapple spears. It’s rich and round and gloriously sweet, with big fruit and a velvety texture. Even artichokes could come around to this taste, grilled or steamed. Now we’re back in familiar five-percent-alcohol territory.

Prunotto Moscato d’Asti 2005 ($24 from Kitsilano Wine Cellar) This is also a frizzante; still fresh at this age (three years is pushing the upper limit for many Moscatos), if a little lugubrious. The fruit is rich and mellow, but a curious medicinal aftertaste mars the finish.

Agricola Marrone Moscato d’Asti Sole d’Oro 2007 ($27.95) This one tops the list this time, both in terms of price and tasters’ preference. It couldn’t be any fresher, brighter, or more instantly appealing. The bubbles are soft (no built-in burp factor) and, yes, 28 bucks is a bit of a heartbreak, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find any better in B.C. at this time. This is one of those newly arrived Farmstead wines, and we found unanimity almost at once: it goes on the Best of the Year list, so we’ll taste it again around Christmastime—if there’s any more to be found. It finishes with an intriguing little tongue buzz from just a hint of the fizziness. One of the great finds of 2008. And there’s the healthy thing, right? Now, I’ve never drunk wine because it’s good for me, but the fact that it’s organic is an attractive bonus.

There you have it—a whole new slant on what to drink with breakfast. Or a barbecue. Or dessert. Or anything. Welcome to the mellow world of Moscato. What a sweetie.