The Desert Wine Guy - Castello Del Poggio, Moscatto

   It's always a pleasure to taste a wine that one of my Facebook fans requests that I do a tasting on. I do have to be honest though. I am a huge lover of reds such as Cabernet Sauvigon and Merlots. When I do drink whites I prefer a nice Riesling or a Chardonnay. These are not too sweet and I find them refreshing. There are times when I will drink a nice Wine Cooler. Having said all this I was asked by a fan on my wine Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy) to review the Castello del Poggio, Moscato so I gladly obliged. The wine gets great reviews. The salesperson who sold me the wine said that she liked the wine. I read reviews that said “I was hooked after the first sip” and “This is a great wine that will satisfy even the subtlest palette”. Having read the comments from other people I was excited to think that this tasting was going to open up a whole new experience. In a way I guess you could say that it did. I had known that Moscato is a dessert wine and that it was a sweet wine. That was O.K with me though since I like the occasional wine cooler as I already said. I did some checking and found that a local large liquor store in my area had the carried the wine so I headed down a couple of days later and for around $12 picked up a bottle. This is great I thought. I am going to please a Facebook fan and expand my horizons on wine at the same time. It all started off very well. Read on to see how it ended.

   Castello del Poggio is located in Gambellara, in the province of Vicenza (Italy). Founded in 1821 by the Zonin family the Castello del Poggio Vineyard started off as a small one and built it's way to where it is today. The current Vineyard is 430 Acres. Today the seventh generation runs the Vineyard with the current President of the Company being Gianni Zonin. The company makes three different Moscato wines.

   Our review wine started a little shaky with me being that it is a screw cap wine. I know I'm going to hear from some of you that corks can be defective or go bad and ruin wine. I'm going to hear that more Vineyards are getting away from corks and going to screw caps and that it is better for the consumer because it makes for more consistent wines. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I know all that. I still think that a decent wine deserves a cork, call me Old School if you want. This preference in fact stopped me from buying a wine the same day I bought our review wine. Moving on with the review, the wine poured a light golden with plenty of bubbles. There were so many bubbles that the edges of the glass actually developed a worrisome, weird thick foam that I found unappealing. The bouquet was of overpowering Pear with a slight aroma of Honeydew. Now as for how the wine tasted on my paletteRossi Asti Spumante which I'm sure we have all had at one time or another. This Moscato is far sweeter then even a Wine Cooler. It almost tastes like the juice from canned Pears only thickened up with sugar. this is all I can say. I'm sorry but I can't say anything good about this wine. I have noticed from reading other peoples reviews that this wine is far more popular with Women that it is with Men for what ever reason. I have even seen some reviews from people who have stated that they don't like wine but love this wine (because of the sweetness). I don't why this is but it appears to be pretty constant throughout peoples reviews. It appears that I am in the minority by not liking this wine but I can only report what I taste and smell. If you enjoy a very sweet wine that give it a try. If you enjoy a good Riesling or Chardonnay or even the occasional wine cooler than I suggest you stay away from this wine.

. I found the wine to be very overdone with Pear. The wine was very sweet and to top it off, extremely syrupy. We have here a carbonated, sickly sweet, syrupy, white wine. The wine is far sweeter than Martini &

                                                                                                                   The Desert Wine Guy