PHOTO: Property of Piemonte Land of Perfection
Formerly known as Moscato Bianco di Canelli, it is an aromatic white-grape variety, corresponding to the French grape muscat blanc à petits grains. Cultivated throughout Italy, Moscato Bianco is at the top of the great family of Moscato, indigenous varieties of the Mediterranean basin. Its name probably derives from the Latin muscum (“moss”), due to the distinctive aroma emanating from its berries. Known to the Greeks as Anathelicon moschaton and to the Romans as apiana, probably because it attracts swarms of bees with its sweetness, this wine is among the oldest existing varieties in our country. Mentioned in the seventeenth century by Giovanni Battista Croce, jeweller to the House of Savoy, who codified the rules of winemaking, it is linked to the town of Canelli, where around 1850 the first Italian sparkling wine was produced from muscat grapes. It is a very aromatic variety, which prefers soils rich in limestone, marl, dry and with little presence of clay, preferably windy to keep the humidity down. It has good resistance to drought and cold and with maturation it reaches a high concentration of sugars.
 

MOSCATO BIANCO GRAPE

Grape colour: white
Productivity: good and regular.
Leaf: medium-sized, five-lobed, with pronounced teeth.
Bunch: medium-sized, elongated, cylindrical-conical shape, with medium, round berries, golden-yellow in colour with amber hints.
Ripening: mid September
Wines: Asti Docg, Colli Tortonesi Moscato Doc, Loazzolo Doc, Piemonte Moscato Doc, Strevi Doc.