When we have a wider family get-together, we number twenty three adults, ranging from 18 to 86 years old. Of these, eight are serious dedicated wine drinkers, who will taste every wine I bring….and I bring a few. A further five will take a glass of their favorite wine and it will last the whole evening. Most won’t finish it. Another will only drink white, because red gives her headaches. The two octogenarians will look up hopefully when I arrive and will ask “do you have a wine for us?” They are referring to Moscato. By chance last time, I took a bottle of a wine made in the style of Asti Spumante (sweet fizz). A further four people became animated and exclaimed: “Finally you bring a wine we like!” The remaining three people won’t touch wine, even if I paid them.
Is this a typical random sample of the wine drinking public? I don’t know. However, what is interesting is that as many as 39% of our family group either prefer sweet wines or do not like any wine at all. This matches in with the fascinating ground breaking research by Tim Hanni, Master of Wine. He identified for us what is known as the “Sweet Vinotype” in his book “Why You Like The Wines You Like.” These are people who have ultra-sensitive palates. They find dry white wines too sour, red wines too astringent and bitter, and alcohol gives them a burning sensation. The wines they like are sweet. According to Tim Hanni this sector represents no less than 40% of Caucasians. The percentage is even higher amongst Asians (50-70%). You can spot them by the copious spoonful’s of sugar they add to coffee and the amount of salt they add to a meal.
Now in the wine trade, we like talking to ourselves. We share views about forest fruits and astringency. We discuss with wine buffs the intricacies of aromas and palate, and stress the importance of terroir. All well and good, but think about it: We focus almost exclusively on dry wines. The wine intelligentsia in Tel Aviv, look on with mild disapproval at the person buying semi dry to sweet wines. The feeling is that they are not real wine drinkers. A whole potential market of Sweet Vinotypes is ignored by the wineries, the wine trade, the wine educators and the mavens who supposedly ‘understand’ wine, but here is the slap in the face. The largest selling imported wine in Israel is Blue Nun. Moscato is booming again. People seem to vote with their feet and buy what they want. We ignore them at our peril.
Tim Hanni MW explains to us that for most of the 8,000 years of wine production, the wine produced was sweet. In the 19th century the great sweet wines cost more than the Bordeaux and Burgundies. The great banquets of the day were accompanied by sweet wines. Port was the most popular wine in Great Britain (as illustrated by the preference of Sir Moses Montefiore from my family) and Madeira was popular in the United States, as may be seen by Thomas Jefferson’s cellar. Up to the 1960s much of the wine produced even in America and Australia was sweet. Now we know that some of the great wines of the world (and some of the rarest) are sweet dessert wines. Think of names like Sauternes, Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauslese and Tokay, but these wines are in the stratosphere of wine experts and connoisseurs. Yet regular sweet wines were cast off as an embarrassment. The problem appeared to be more with the word ‘sweet’, than with the sweetness of the wines. In the last couple of generations it has connotations of being cheap, unhealthy, not the real thing and it was fraught with painful memories. It was particularly reviled in the Jewish world brought up on sweet Kiddush (sacramental) wines like King David & Konditon (in Israel), Manischewitz & Kedem (USA) and Palwin (UK), along with their mother’s milk.
However, the Sweet Vinotype knows what they want and they are not cowed by the so called experts. Look at the success of Blue Nun. This was one of the largest brands in the world when I was in the English wine trade in the 1980s. In those days, Liebfraumilch ruled in Britain, White Zinfandel and Lambrusco conquered America, and Israelis who had been drinking semi dry wines like Adom Atik, Carmel Hock and Grenache Rose, fell in love with Emerald Riesling and Fantasia. Blue Nun had been on a steady decline and was relaunched a number of times, but in Israel it took off and became a phenomenon. A wine retailer once sneered to me “well Blue Nun, it’s not wine.” More fool him. It is and he probably sells barrels of the stuff. It is wise not to take 40% of the potential wine drinking public as idiots.
There is a Jewish connection. The creator of Blue Nun was a German Jewish wine company called Sichel that was founded by Herman Sichel in 1857. The nuns on the label originally wore brown habits, but a printing error turned them blue. It was the legendary Peter Max Sichel, whom I had the privilege of meeting, who turned Blue Nun into the most recognizable wine brand in the world. The Authentic Blue Nun is made from Muller Thurgau grown in the Rheinhessen region of Germany. There is also a Gewurztraminer and a Riesling. All the wines may be recognized by the iconic blue bottle and the new labels have a blue diamond shape. The main success in the kosher market is a Gewurztraminer Riesling blend. The kosher expressions use the traditional label of nuns in blue habits. The wines are marketed as semi dry, but are in fact really semi sweet.
Those who understood that wine drinkers liked to order dry, but in actual fact preferred to drink sweet, made a swift buck. This was understood by the phenomenally successful Yellow Tail. The wines had residual sugar, were semi dry, but were sold as the essence of Australia. The word ‘sweet’ did not appear, but words like ‘soft’, ‘round’, ‘smooth’, ‘approachable’ and ‘easy drinking’ did. The wine brand became a sensation worldwide.
Herzog Wine Cellars, the leading kosher powerhouse in California, had their own response to the Sweet Vinotype. They created Jeunesse in 2005. The basic range are varietal wines without oak influence. They are meant to be drunk young. They look like authentic normal varietal wines, but with one caveat; they are semi sweet. The winemaker is the very talented Alicia Wilbur. She says her objective is “to make approachable, fun, perceptively sweet wines that taste like the variety on the label.” She goes on “They don’t pretend to be something other than exactly what they are.” Jeunesse is a fun wine with a huge dedicated fan base in America and the wines also have a following in Israel.
However, the best example of a wine for the Sweet Vinotype is Moscato. One of the first Moscatos to gain international acceptance was the Bartenura Moscato. It is the real McCoy, made in the home of Moscato d’Asti. Bartenura preceded the Moscato boom, before what became known as “Moscato madness” took over America. The brand was created by Royal Wine Corp, the world’s largest importer and distributor of kosher wines. It was named after a 15th century Italian Rabbi. The muscat grapes are grown on the beautiful hills of Asti in the Piedmont region of northern Italy and the wines are made by a large winery called Araldica Castelvero. Royal decided to put their Moscato into a blue bottle in 1992, preceding Blue Nun which went in to blue glass in 1997. The blue bottle of both became iconic. Bartenura was initially produced to satisfy the kosher markets desire for imports, low alcohol and sweetness. When the Moscato revolution took off, Bartenura was well placed to ride on the crest of the wave because of its authenticity and quality. It became the largest selling brand in the kosher world (excluding Kiddush wines like Manischewitz) and the number one imported Moscato in America. It became a phenomenon in the United States, like Blue Nun in Israel.
By the way, there is a full range of Blue Nun and Bartenura wines for the Sweet Vinotype. There are Blue Nun Sparkling wines, which range from semi dry to semi sweet. Bartenura also produce an Asti Spumante and Dolce Noir, a semi sweet red, but they are most famous for their Moscato.
Moscato is a wine which follows the Moscato d’Asti style. It is low alcohol (5-6%), slightly sparkling (frizzante), frothy with grapey aromas and flavors of peach, pear and orange blossom. It is a wine style suitable for people that hate wine. The Great Aunt at your family Seder will love it. It is a wine suitable for any time between breakfast, brunch and dinner, where it will be excellent with fresh fruit desserts. However, the Moscato lover will drink it with a meal without a second thought. And why not? It is considered alright to drink Coca Cola with a meal and use ketchup, both of which are sweet, so why should a sweet wine, be prohibited? As for me, it is a wine that makes me smile and reminds me not to take wine too seriously.
I always say tongue in cheek, that Moscato is a Jewish wine. Its low alcohol, spritzy sparkle and sweetness, make it a perfect family Kiddush wine. It is better than mixing grape juice and Kiddush wine which is the Shabbat tradition in some households. For those that require red for religious ritual, there are also red and rose Moscatos. Funnily enough, Moscato is also a popular Italian Jewish surname.
The first Moscato in Israel was produced by the Golan Heights Winery in 1999. Today their Hermon Moscato is the finest expression of Moscato on the Israeli market. They used the same grape variety as is used in Italy, the Muscat Canelli. This is a synonym for Muscat de Frontignan and the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains. The other Israeli Moscatos use the Muscat of Alexandria grape. This is one of the oldest of all grape varieties, and is indigenous to North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. Muscat Hamburg (there are numerous variations of muscat) is the variety used for Red Moscatos.
The Moscato powerhouse is Carmel, the historic winery of Israel, whose Sparkling Buzz brand is by far the best seller. The Buzz Moscato and Carignano (red) represent ‘best buys.’ Buzz has also a range of innovative add-ons. There are fruit flavored Moscatos (Apple, Mango and Peach) and also cocktail inspired Moscatos (with a likeness to Pina Colada and Cosmopolitan). Out of these, I prefer the Peach and Cosmopolitan, but the basic Moscato is better than both! Buzz has been incredibly successful, particularly with new young drinkers. The Private Collection White Moscato and Pink Moscato are better, fresher than Buzz. Firstly, they are vintage wines, so you can select the youngest wine possible. Buzz are non-vintage wines and by the color and taste some are clearly older wines. Secondly, the bubbles in Private Collection are naturally preserved from the fermentation. The packaging also look more stylish and therefore they make better gifts. The Private Collection White Moscato comes in a blue bottle, shades of Bartenura and Blue Nun. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Of the others, Barkan, one of our two largest wineries, is the latest to bring out a Moscato. Their expression of Moscato is aromatic, fresh and flavorful. Teperberg, our largest family winery, market their Moscatos in fancy bottles, which raises their profile and makes them stand out. The best of the Israelis are in my opinion the Hermon Moscato, Barkan Moscato, Teperberg Red Moscato and Private Collection Pink Moscato.
Zion Winery, founded in 1848, our oldest existing winery, go to sparkling wine specialists in the La Mancha region of Spain to produce their red and white Moscato. They also produce Fizzaro there. This was the Asti Spumante-like product that members of my family so enjoyed. It is slightly higher alcohol than Moscato (9%) and slightly less sweet. By the way I have no objection to a winery making a wine overseas, as long as they don’t try and pass it off as Israeli, as our largest wineries have done in the past.
Tim Hanni MW writes: “It is time to end the ‘tyranny of the minority’ of wine gatekeepers and turn the power of choice to wine consumers.” These wines are a message in a bottle to regular wine drinkers. Their manifesto goes something like this: “We drink sweet. We drink what we like. We drink wines for enjoyment.” They are drinkers simply wanting to enjoy something they find tasty. Perceptions of quality, tastings and discussions are of no interest to them. They do not want a symposium on each wine they drink. So whether you like Blue Nun, Moscato or Lambrusco, feel empowered to drink what the hell you like. These are what I call “F*CK YOU” wines. The message is from 40% of the potential wine drinking population. The ‘you’ in this case are what Hanni calls “the dry wine fashionistas” and so called experts. I believe wine is inclusive, not exclusive. What I have learnt from Tim Hanni and my large family get-togethers, is always to have a case of Moscato to hand. These days, I take a bottle to those large family events. Let’s make sure everyone is catered for and everyone is happy. The wine world is not a closed society, but is open for all.
Adam Montefiore is a wine trade veteran and winery insider turned wine writer, who has advanced Israeli wines for 38 years. He is referred to as the English voice of Israeli wine and is the Wine Writer of the Jerusalem Post. www.adammontefiore.com