Muscat Wine Pairing

One of the oldest grapes grown to make wine, Muscat has hundreds of varieties, but Muscat Blanc is most widely planted and considered the best. It's signature aroma is actually grapes/raisins along with coriander, peach, orange, flowers and musk. It's often scorned for being a simple wine with its grapey notes and low acidity; the white sister of Beaujolais that's best consumed young. However, when well made, it is a refined wine that's beautifully aromatic, almost perfumed.

Stylistically, it is light, dry and refreshing; slightly sparkling; and a lovely unctuous fortified dessert wine called Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise in the southern Rhone Valley of France, Muscat de Rivesaltes in Roussillon, Liqueur Muscat (made from Black Muscat) in Australia ("stickies"), and Moscatel de Setubal in Portugal. Most Mediterranean wine regions make Muscat-based wines, including Greece and Spain (Moscatel de Málaga). In many areas of France, it's called Muscat Frontignan, but in the Loire Valley it is known as Muscadet. In Italy, it goes by the alias Moscato di Canelli where it is also the base for asti spumante sweet sparklers.

In South Africa, it goes by Muscadel and makes the wonderful and historic wine, Vin de Constance. California and Chile also produce this wine as it likes temperate climates, but it is prone to disease. Muscat is often blended with California's White Zinfandel and Alsace's Gewurztraminer to add more fruitiness to the final wine. Muscat Orange, with its orange blossom aromas, does well in California where Quady Winery makes lovely dessert wines called Essencia and Elysium that are perfect with chocolate-orange desserts.

Dry and sparkling styles of Muscat pair well with nuts, melon balls with smoked ham, soft cheeses, light curries, shellfish, seafood, vegetarian, quiche, omelets, Asian noodles, turkey butternut squash risotto and avocado salad. Drink dessert-style Muscats with dark chocolate, almond-flavored desserts, orange spice cake, coffee cake, caramel, toffee, gorgonzola and cambozola cheese, bananas flambéed or fritters, fruit cake, mince pies and rhubarb crumble.

Muscat Wine with cheese:

     • blue cheese
     • gorgonzola & cambozola
     • colby
     • cheddar: horseradish
     • swiss: aged: 1 year
     • swiss: aged: 2 years & 3 years
     • Gorgonzola Dolce
     • Gorgonzola Piccante

Muscat Wine with chicken/poultry:

     • chicken with grapes

Muscat Wine with desserts:

     • puddings: nut-based
     • pie: mince
     • bananas - flambeed or fritters
     • fruit salad: exotic
     • cake: fruit

Muscat Wine with pasta:

     • risotto with butternut squash

Muscat Wine with sauces, spices, herbs:

     • rosemary

Muscat Wine with vegetables & salads:

     • salad: avocado