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This was the wine that completely changed our perception of what was possible when it came to Moscato. Sandro Boido is one of the few Moscato growers really pushing the envelope when it comes to reaching for the highest quality, and this wine is his calling card. “It’s a huge debacle,” he told Eric Asimov of the New York Times. “Moscato has exploded in America, but which Moscato? Not Moscato d’Asti. Why are people willing to spend $100 on a bottle of red wine, but they refuse to spend $40 on a bottle of Moscato?”
As the name implies, Boido’s Vite Vecchia is drawn from old vines, a single parcel on just one hectare of the steeper, limestone-rich slopes of the Valdivilla hillside. It was planted with the old Moscato cultivar Canelli Moscato some 60 years ago by Sandro’s grandfather. The wines are stored on cork for later release, in large wooden boxes packed with sand. This is a traditional method of bottle maturation once used in the area, moderating temperature and moisture and blocking out all light.
This is a unique and compelling version of Piemonte’s famous sweet wine. Thanks to the vine age, south-facing exposure and unique blue tufa (clay/limestone soils), the vines here produce deeply flavoured, golden bunches of grapes that in turn gift a gloriously deep yet vibrant Moscato with both greater textural depth and vinosity than you could have otherwise imagined possible from the grape. There’s also an earthy/smoky/mineral impact, and complex development that might remind you of a Riesling or, even an aged Sancerre.
In other words, this is very serious Moscato. Perhaps ‘serious’ is the wrong word to use, but you know what we’re getting at.