Comments on: Moscato di Nasty?

By: 30 Rock wine: the best tasting note Robert Parker never wrote | Dr Vino's wine blog

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:55:59 +0000

[...] only about five years late on this. But, thanks to site reader Quizicat drawing a parallel to our recent discussion of moscato, I’ve learned that I missed an episode of “30 Rock” where wine featured [...]

By: RobinC

RobinC — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:56:35 +0000

I don’t much care for sweet wines. I once tried Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise
which is supposed to be a great sweet wine, but I didn’t like it at all. There is, however, something for everyone.

By: Craig Underhill

Craig Underhill — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:02:42 +0000

I guess everyone has to start somewhere! Better moscato than alco-pops

By: Dustin Oien

Dustin Oien — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:41:31 +0000

I think this is a wonderful thing! I personally don’t drink the sweet stuff but it’s a beautiful thing to see more and more people getting their feet wet in the wine industry. It’s only a matter of time before all of those people that are hooked on Moscato are ready to try something different. The more people we have drinking wine in this country the better!

By: Kurt Burris

Kurt Burris — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:55:32 +0000

Barefoot Moscato! With that level of RS and using every drop of juice possible, I can only imagine the hangover.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:05:19 +0000

Where are the cute guys in Barefoot boxers?

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:33:53 +0000

I’m attending a presentation right now and Danny Brager of Nielsen says that Moscato is, indeed, taking market share from white zin. He says it may overtake sauvignon blanc at He also described the drinker as “much younger, more female, non-white, and lower income.” Perhaps even those who are new to wine.

A representative from a producer told me that there’s a real scramble for Moscato grapes now, whether from California, Italy, or Argentina. This person also said that the demographics are changing as the category grows rapidly, but generally are similar to Brager’s view.

Laura – you’re in the class? Great! Look forward to meeting you!

By: gdfo

gdfo — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:30:35 +0000

Back in the 1980′s I worked for a distributor that offered some Northern Italian wines. Among those wines were a very good Moscato. Back then the retail was about 5.99 so you can imagine what the wholesale price was.

When it is made well it is a pleasant wine. I can write this and also say that I am not much of a white wine drinker at all let alone a Pop-wine drinker.
The bottlom line is that people are drinking wine they will either go on to other types or they will go back to whatever they were drinking.

Many years ago I went through a snob stage. As I learned more about wine and lots of other things in life, I came to realize that there are lots of things that people like and for different reasons. I am fine with that.
A nasty wine is a poorly made wine. They come in all colors and flavors. Some folks make wine for a fast buck and some make wine because it expresses something about the world they live in and that reflect back on them.

By: gabe

gabe — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:27:57 +0000

i’ve had a lot of people tell me they don’t really drink wine, but they do like moscato. i can’t say if it will last, but i can say that anticdotal evidence supports marketing research

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:06:21 +0000

I think moscato is the new trend. It pops up in a number of other recent hip hop songs including Waka Flocka’s “No Hands” in the first verse.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:23:07 +0000

I’m a total proponent of moscato, as long as it doesn’t become a “you can drink this with anything” wine (though I do think it goes well with a lot of things)

A trey/drake lover, I’m betting it ended up in the song thanks to the rhyming–the Young Money crowd probably drake $6 moscato before they made it big, but i’m guessing they have Cristal on tap these days

totally excited to be for your class at NYU btw

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:18:59 +0000

Hi Andrea – Thanks for the clarification. I had seen the lyrics in Drake’s song and seen that the two are friends but hadn’t realized it was actually Drake performing.

Any thoughts on how/why the moscato came to figure in the lyrics?

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:44:16 +0000

I accidentally stumbled on Barefoot moscato last year and its great, especially for people who prefer sweeter drinks. By the way, in the song by “I Invented Sex” by Trey Songz, Drake actually sings the lyrics “lobster and shrimp and a glass of moscato.”

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:55:03 +0000

Wait, I just found another synopsis of the 30 Rock ep:

In “The Source Awards,” he started his own winery “Donaghy Estates” after purchasing a vineyard on the north fork of Long Island. Despite the wine being reviewed in Robert Parker’s Wine Newsletter as tasting like “the urine of Satan after a hefty portion of asparagus,” he attempted to market it to the hip-hop community as a replacement for Cristal champagne.

That would surely have been Parker’s best ever tasting note! How many points?!?

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:53:16 +0000

Quizicat – Yes, I linked to the NPR story above. Funny, I missed that 30 Rock episode. Turns out it was season 1, episode 16 for those who are interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_Awards_(30_Rock)

Chuck – Yes, the rapid growth does seem faddish. It’s not as if moscato is new the way white zin was when the Trincheros “discovered” it.

Wilf – it seems you detect a whiff of marketing…And yes, $30 million in sales is a tiny drop in the vat for Gallo.