The Auswine Forum

I was wondering if anyone knew some good Australian Moscato's?

I'm not a huge fan of botrytis or even cane cut wines and prefer this lighter style as a desert wine, or across a cheese plate but have had limited success finding good quality Australian Moscato wines. By far and away the best I've had to date is the Two Hands, Brilliant Disguise - 2005, of course I've ad more than a few bottles of the Brown brothers Moscato but I really need to expand my horizons here. Yes, I know there are plenty of good Italian Moscato's, but that's not the point. I'd prefer to drink our local wines.

I like the Two hands version because of its "fizz" as opposed to the Brown Brothers rather "still" version.

Anyone have any recommendations or favourites in this category?

Two Hands is the best I've tried so far, the new release 2007 is excellent as well. Trying to remember the others I've had, but they were all pretty forgettable to be honest.

camw wrote:Two Hands is the best I've tried so far, the new release 2007 is excellent as well. Trying to remember the others I've had, but they were all pretty forgettable to be honest.

My thoughts exactly!

Wirra Mrs Wigley is the best I have tried to date.
I have a Kay Brothers one to taste too.
GW

They're great fun wines. The Giant Steps Pink Moscato is good. Stella Bella made one for a while too - not sure if it's still in their range. Moscato is a boom waiting to happen.

Campbell.

Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander (can't recall if there is a separate moscato under each label) are worth a look. I have a bottle of the Kay Bros lined up for tasting this week. I don't recall being impressed with the Tempus moscato, but that may have been due to price point.

I buy some of the Italian jobbies as well, which seem to be riding a mini-boom for moscato and getting decent distribution.

Gary W wrote:Wirra Mrs Wigley is the best I have tried to date.
I have a Kay Brothers one to taste too.
GW

Agreed...picked up a couple of these from the winery on Friday....I took them to the Barossa and the lads there call them 'Hairdresser' wines.

Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander

Kay Bros

Wirra Mrs Wigley

Tempus

But do all of these recommendations have thet "effervescent" or "fizzy" characteristic?

DaveB wrote:

Gary W wrote:Wirra Mrs Wigley is the best I have tried to date.
I have a Kay Brothers one to taste too.
GW

Agreed...picked up a couple of these from the winery on Friday....I took them to the Barossa and the lads there call them 'Hairdresser' wines.

Ha ha. Those South Australian Box Heads could do with a bit of sprucing up...

Kays, Innocent B and Wirra are all fizzy.
GW

Gary W wrote:

DaveB wrote:

Gary W wrote:Wirra Mrs Wigley is the best I have tried to date.
I have a Kay Brothers one to taste too.
GW

Agreed...picked up a couple of these from the winery on Friday....I took them to the Barossa and the lads there call them 'Hairdresser' wines.

Ha ha. Those South Australian Box Heads could do with a bit of sprucing up...

Kays, Innocent B and Wirra are all fizzy.
GW

Hehe....you know what they say at the Barbers in Tanunda " Haircuts.....$1 a corner"

Sort of suggests a recent Australian palate shift from dry whites to off-dry styles perhaps?

e.g. off-dry rieslings and moscatos

I wonder if demi-secs will come back in vogue.

The only point of contention that I can see is the trend away from the big bugundy-style chardy to the chablis style. As both styles are dry however I shall ignore it

cheers

Carl

DaveB wrote:Agreed...picked up a couple of these from the winery on Friday....I took them to the Barossa and the lads there call them 'Hairdresser' wines.

I've not tasted any of the local attempts, but do enjoy the 'authentic' ones available these days. Enough real acid is what distinguishes them from what I imagine Barossa Pearl tasted like (too young to know, thank goodness).
I reckon M d'A is the wine that separates the true enthusiasts from the snobs.
cheers,
Graeme

Jeanneret "Mosquito" is good when first released, but the last vintage quickly lost it's spritz under the screwcap.

T'Gallant used to make one.

Honestly for the price of the Two Hands, you can find better imported proper stuff...

Yep, the Macarini is good at $18.

What ml bottles are these new moscatos selling in linke Two hands et al?

Glen wrote:Yep, the Macarini is good at $18.

Did someone say "Macarena"?

cheers

Carl

Glen wrote:Yep, the Macarini is good at $18.

What ml bottles are these new moscatos selling in linke Two hands et al?

Two Hands 50cL (in a very heavy bottle, that I'm sure costs more than the wine; fits well in stubby holder though), the others are 75cL IIRC.

rooview wrote:

Nayan wrote:

Glen wrote:Yep, the Macarini is good at $18.

What ml bottles are these new moscatos selling in linke Two hands et al?

Two Hands 50cL (in a very heavy bottle, that I'm sure costs more than the wine; fits well in stubby holder though), the others are 75cL IIRC.

That will impress the boys - an icy cold moscato in stubby holder drunk straight from the bottle.

Did it with a heavy breakfast once and as a others struggled through their beers after a large night I was grinning with my wonderfully spritzy moscato. Fantastic hair of the dog.

I reckon the Wirra Wirra Moscato is called "Muskets at Dawn" (Mrs Wigley is their Rose). I didn't like the 1st vintage but their most recent effort seems much more enjoyable with a little more spritz. Probably my favorite local Moscato. Still haven't found an Australian one that's measured up to those tasted in Europe though.

Cheers
Nick

Nick wrote:I reckon the Wirra Wirra Moscato is called "Muskets at Dawn" (Mrs Wigley is their Rose). I didn't like the 1st vintage but their most recent effort seems much more enjoyable with a little more spritz. Probably my favorite local Moscato. Still haven't found an Australian one that's measured up to those tasted in Europe though.

Cheers
Nick

Hi Nick....correcto...it used to be called muskets at dawn but they have changed the name to Mrs Wigley Moscato from this vintage onwards.

Cheers

Dave

Cheers Dave
That's very tricky of them. It's difficult enough to keep up with all of these names without wineries changing them from vintage to vintage!

Got 5 lined up to try in the next couple of weeks now (Two Hands, Kay Bros, Wirra Wirra, Innocent Bystander and Tempus Two). Need to track down Stella Bella, Brown Bros and T'Gallant if they are still making it. Will try and find a few Italians to throw in and taste blind as well.

There is a fair range of residual sugar levels, floral/grapey aromatics, and balancing acid in the Australian moscato wines I've tried. I tend to look for a medium level of fizz (needs to be a bit more than the barest level of frizzante), some musk on the nose as well as that distinctive 'this smells like actual grapes' character, but the sweetness should not cloy.

The best test of moscato, in my opinion, is to have them with a range of 'difficult' foods. I had an excellent, ex-Michelin starred chef here in Canberra do a bunch of challenging dishes to match a series of sparkling wines, and it was amazing how well moscato did. Especially for tricky things like pickled roast capsicum, vinegary olives, cured fish, and dishes with a little chilli heat.

I find moscato can work really well as a relaxed aperitif type of drink, handling all kinds of nibbly food, and the low alcohol can mean people don't stress out too much about a pre-dinner drink.

That said, I would probably buy more Moscato d'Asti than Australian versions, but I've had Australian efforts I liked. The Kay Bros (750ml) I had as a pre-dinner starter last night, and it handled beetroot dip really well, though could perhaps have benefitted from a little more acid.

I'd actually like to plant a bit of Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains and have a go at making a bit of moscato. It would be a fun thing to do. One thing I'm not aware of is which methods the Australian producers use to produce moscato (carbonation via CO2 injection, Charmat, transfer, or methode champenoise). I'm assuming Charmat or transfer?

T' Gallant is my favourite without doubt, then the Two Hands and Bystander. I must track down the others mentioned above.

Just tried the 2006 Two Hands alongside the Wirra Wirra Mrs Wigley. Wirra won hands down, with a good salmon/orange blush to it, musk and blossom on the nose, and a decent bit of fizz. I think 5.5% abv.

I suspect the Two Hands might have been a contender though, were it not corked. Why an Australian producer would jam a standard cork into a fizzy moscato I have absolutely no idea.

pstarr wrote:I suspect the Two Hands might have been a contender though, were it not corked. Why an Australian producer would jam a standard cork into a fizzy moscato I have absolutely no idea.

US market ...

The Wirra is under crown seal also....nice one.

As most have pointed out the Two Hands Brilliant Disguise is top quality. I liked the Wirra Wirra which I tried only a few weeks ago (which is also the smaller 500ml bottle like the Two Hands)

I've also been reasonably impressed with the bianco De Bortoli offering as well. Nicely off-dry with a decent finish and good fizz, especially compared to the Brown Bros. Picked up a few of them recently at the big chain for under $12 for a 750 ml bottle (with champagne style closure) in a mixed half doz.

Went to the Adelaide Wine Show the last week, and I wasn't taken by any of the offerings in this style (i like the two hands mentioned above).

They were generally incredibly sugary and lacking in any real flavours.

This includes:
Grant Burge
Trentham Estate 'La Famiglia'
Banrock Station
Warburn Estate 'Stephendale'
Pertaringa (i really like their red offerings!)

Has anyone had any decent Prosecco? I've only had once italian one which i have forgotten the name of.

GraemeG wrote:I've not tasted any of the local attempts, but do enjoy the 'authentic' ones available these days. Enough real acid is what distinguishes them from what I imagine Barossa Pearl tasted like (too young to know, thank goodness).
I reckon M d'A is the wine that separates the true enthusiasts from the snobs.
cheers,
Graeme

Pretty much agree with your comments - acidity, frizzante rather than sparkling and a touch of complexity. Moscato D'Asti really is great and a good challenge to folks that get hung up on sweetness being an issue. For me the Brown Brothers version didn't get the acidity anywhere near right and came across as awfully flabby.