Drink Your Dessert

Sometimes, after a long, long day, you want a little treat after dinner but you don't want ice cream and you don't want cookies and you definitely don't want tea or coffee. What you want is something sweet but not heavy, relaxing but not stupefying.

You want Moscato d'Asti--even if you don't realize it. Sweet, softly sparkling, and low alcohol (usually 7-8%) Moscato d'Asti can turn any day into a little bit of a celebration and provide you with the perfect excuse to sit and think things over at the end of the day. Even better, Moscatos (those from Asti and those made in an Asti style) are often great bargains. The problem is that some of them are terrible--sickly sweet rather than soft and aromatic as they should be.

The 2005 Bonny Doon Moscato d'Asti "Il Giocoliere" ($15, straight from Bonny Doon) is a wonderful example of how good this wine can be. When you first open it and pour, it is unbelievably frothy, but once you taste it the bubbles are soft and minor players in the wine. Of much greater significance are the aromas--peach, orange blossom, spring flowers, jasmine. It's a whole garden right in your glass. Flavors of peach, honey, and melon follow. This is less a wine to have with dessert than it is a wine to have for dessert. But if you must have something, think simple: a peach, some sliced apples, or an almond biscotti.

Though this wine is marketed under the Bonny Doon label, it is made from Piedmonte grapes by the Cavellero brothers in a little village called Vesime. More expensive than some wines of this type, its lovely balance and complexity ensures that it is still a wine with very good QPR.