I like me some occasional wine, but it has to be sweet, or else I’m not interested. If it’s sweet and sparkling, however, then sign me up instantly! Aldi has carried the Moiselle line of wines for quite some time now, consisting of pink and white Moscatos, but we had never noticed their sparkling Moscato offering until recently. Retailing for a mere $5.99 in Ohio (price may vary elsewhere), we just knew we had to try it…and I’m certainly glad we did.
My nose cannot differentiate aromas professionally at all (hell, it frequently has problems detecting anything at all), so please forgive me when I describe the smell as being “similar to just about every other Moscato I’ve ever sniffed”. It does smell crisp and inviting; the bottle alludes to “flavors of pineapple and other tropical fruits”…I’m not sure I can specifically detect any of those on the nose, but there’s certainly an enticing, lingering sweetness present. The “sparkling” description is strongly evident right from the pour, as this has a lot of bubbles that’s reminiscent of pouring a soda out of a two liter…that’s how many bubbles accumulate at the top. We had this wine for about a week before finishing it off, and expected it to be flat by the last glass; much to our surprise, even the last glass we poured had plenty of bubbles in it. It wasn’t quite as exaggerated as it was after the first couple of days, but there was still a noticeable bit of carbonation on the tongue, which I thought was impressive, considering we had no way to completely seal it back up.
The taste, though, is where this is at. This might be my favorite wine that I’ve ever tried from the German discount superstore. It’s sweet, but never manages to be overly so, and finishes with a little bit of dryness that acts as the perfect balancing component. The tropical flavors dance on the tongue, and immediately made my mouth water; I couldn’t wait to down some more. I usually have no problems stopping after a glass or two of any wine, but I could easily down this entire bottle (and maybe one more) all in one sitting with absolutely no problems (besides maybe a headache afterwards). Quady’s Electra is by far my favorite dessert wine, and while this doesn’t come all that close to matching it in terms of taste (it is a completely different kind of wine, after all), the flavor profile strikes me as very similar, while the price is a third less.
Surprisingly, the wife and I haven’t tried any of the other Moiselle offerings, but just based on this one, we are eager to check out the rest. That is, if we can even bring ourselves to give any of the others a shot, instead of just loading up on these every time we go. It’s an excellent-tasting sweet wine, for a very excellent price.
Overall: 9/10. When it says it’s “sparkling”, it’s not lying: pouring a glass of this is strongly reminiscent of pouring a cup of soda from a two-liter bottle. So many bubbles accumulated at the top of the glass that I even had to wait for them to subside to finish pouring. There were even bubbles (though not as many) a week after we opened the bottle, which was very surprising to us, considering we had no way to seal it up between servings. The taste itself is absolutely phenomenal, though; a magnificent blend of tropical fruit sweetness with just a little hint of dryness in the finish, which prevents this from being too cloying. And at 9% ABV, there’s a decent amount of alcohol to be had, too, making it a good wine to pair with food, or just as an after-dinner treat. We haven’t tried a whole lot of their offerings, but this one might have become our go-to Aldi wine.
