Villa Jolanda Moscato Rose

Villa Jolanda Moscato Rose is a pink sparkling Moscato from Massachusetts, sold here as a three-pack. The label gives no vintage, ABV or sweetness level, so the tasting notes below describe what the style usually delivers, not measured figures for this bottle. Moscato-based rosés are typically light and lightly to moderately sweet. They carry the grape's floral perfume of orange blossom, peach and honeysuckle, with red-berry notes such as strawberry or raspberry layered on top. Expect a light body, almost no tannin, and a gentle fizz in place of the sharp bubbles of a brut. Acidity is usually soft, so the sweetness comes across as ripe fruit, not syrup. Oak has no place in this style, and the finish tends to be short, clean and fruity. At the table, the sweetness works best against salt, spice and fat. Prosciutto and melon, salted nuts, soft rind cheeses and fried appetizers all balance well against it. So do mildly spicy dishes such as Thai salads, Szechuan-style noodles or barbecue chicken wings. Fresh strawberries, peach tarts and light sponge cake suit it as dessert. It tends to fall flat next to very rich chocolate or heavily sweet puddings, because the wine starts to taste thin beside them. Serve it well chilled, around 38 to 45°F (3 to 7°C), which is about three hours in the refrigerator or thirty minutes in an ice bucket. Warmth makes sweet sparkling wines taste heavy and flabby, so a cold bottle is the safer choice. Do not decant it, since that would only strip out the bubbles. Pour into a standard white wine glass or a tulip-shaped sparkling glass. These keep the floral aromas close to the nose and hold the fizz longer than a wide coupe. This is a bottle to drink young. Fruity, aromatic sparkling wines like this are at their best soon after purchase and do not improve with cellaring, so there is no reason to hold it. A three-pack suits drinking the bottles over a few gatherings. Once opened, re-seal with a sparkling-wine stopper and finish it within a day or two for the best fizz.