Flat Creek Estate Muscato D'Arancia Orange Muscat 2010 Texas

Bottle 2 of 7 is on the table tonight.

Here's why I bought this one:

Slight residual sugars enhance the fruit flavors and balance the acidity in this food-friendly wine.  Aromas of orange blossom and magnolia match the soft texture.

OK, that, and the fact that I might have possibly been in a buying frenzy. Because that description, while nice (I especially like the bit about orange blossom and magnolia!), is not quite as enticing as it was in my memory. However, I loved that Purple Cow Muscat so much that it sure would be nice to find another one like it that might be easier to obtain.

So, the bottle (which, by the way, has another Carrollesque Drink Now label) is slightly smaller than most, at 500 mL as compared to 750 (sad face), but it was also cheaper than its larger brethren at Flat Creek (happy face). It has a pleasingly long and narrow shape. The wine is a pretty sunshiney golden color. And (while once again wondering just how suggestible I might be) I do catch a faint whiff of orange.

To taste, the wine is just a bit sweeter than I'd like. But for a Muscat, where some sweetness is expected, this is not a valid complaint. Without a side-by-side comparison it's hard to say for sure, but I have the feeling that the Purple Cow Muscat was more to my liking. But even if this one is not my favorite, it's still very enjoyable. I like the fruity flavor, and it's nice to have a white wine that I don't find bland or musty or one of those other negative descriptors I've used for whites in the past.

As for "orange blossom and magnolia" . . . I have discovered something interesting tonight. If I tell myself, "This tastes like orange!" and then take a sip, it tastes like orange. If I say, "This tastes like peach!" and take a sip, I taste peach. If I say, "This tastes like pear!" and sip . . . asparagus. (Just kidding. It's pear.) I'd like to believe this says more about the fruity flavor of this wine than it says about the inability of my palate to distinguish between flavors, but I must admit I'm not convinced of that fact.

Here's the official verdict. If you are looking for a sweet summery wine, I'll say this one gets two thumbs up. If putting "sweet" and "wine" together in the same sentence is not for you, move along.

Quady Electra Orange Muscat (didn't get the year) California

I was thrilled to try a new wine at Wine Club Book Club tonight. This was another light and fresh Muscat and it was quite good. To me, it tasted a bit more sweet than both of the Purple Cow Muscats I've tried, but I still enjoyed it. It's a low-alcohol wine (just barely beyond grape juice) but it paired nicely with our book discussion.

Here's the winemaker's description:

"With the first sip you feel the wine--light as springtime, delicately sweet, refreshingly crisp, a bouquet of flowers with the taste of peach and melon. Electra is electricity for the mouth!"

I don't know about the electricity part, but I definitely agree that it's light, sweet and crisp.

The Muscat You've Been Waiting For

My husband hates his job and is threatening to quit (again), so pretty soon I may not be able to afford wine, or at least I will have to drink it all from a box. May as well enjoy these bottles while I can. But what better wine to enjoy than my wonderful new discovery of Purple Cow Muscat! Here's that 2008 vs. 2009 tasting flight I promised you.

This Muscat is made from the Muscat Ottanel grape, while the Moscato d'Asti I'd previously tried (which I didn't really care for) is from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains. I'm not sure how much of the difference comes from the grapes themselves and how much is from the winemaking process, but I found a huge variation between these Muscats and that Moscato d'Asti. I loved these Purple Cow wines! Both of them!

I first opened the 2009, which is called "off-dry." The Purple Cow website says it has 1% residual sugar with a coconut, peach, and honeysuckle nose, and that it's dry enough to enjoy with food.

Next was the "supremely dry" 2008. The website says this "was a very cool year with a long, dry autumn. Its effect on the Muscat vintage was near perfection. The varietal character came out strong and naturally created a nice sugar/acid balance. The only downside to this vintage was that the yield was very poor, so there isn't much to go around . . . classic Muscat aromas of peach, honeysuckle, magnolia, and coconut are framed in a very subtle package that is excellent for many food pairings." It's also described as a very intense vintage with a high skin/seed to weight ratio.

The 2008 does have a stronger aroma than the 2009, in which I can certainly smell more sweetness, but they both smell great. I could probably convince myself that I'm smelling peach, honeysuckle and coconut, but then if the bottle had claimed it smelled like strawberries, lemons, and rocks, I probably would have believed that too. The 2008 has no sweetness to it at all and has a nice tart aftertaste, but it is still light and fresh, just like my sister said. The 2009 seems calmer and more relaxed. (Or maybe that's just me). I can definitely taste more sugar in the 2009. It's almost like the 2008 is wine with the essence of grapefruit juice, and the 2009 is the same with an added dusting of sugar on top.

Along the way, I learned something new. Allow me to pass it along to you! What I have done tonight is called a "vertical tasting," meaning I have compared the same wine through different vintages. This is as oppposed to--you guessed it--a "horizontal tasting," which is not at all what it sounded like to me. That would be comparing a group of wines from the same vintage or of the same style (such as all Pinot Noirs, or that Malbec vs. Malbec tasting I last did), and has nothing to do with bed. Both differ from my usual willy-nilly tasting, which I suppose would be considered "diagonal," or perhaps even "skew."

I believe in this vertical tasting we have what one might term a draw. There is a slight though distinct difference between these two wines, but I wouldn't kick either one out of bed. And it's great to have finally found a white wine that I love. Keep that in mind if you see me on the side of the interstate holding a hand-lettered cardboard sign that reads, "Will work for wine."

The package has arrived!

My smiling Mr. FedEx just paid me a visit and left me a box I've been eagerly awaiting all week long. It's merely inauspicious brown cardboard, but it's just the right size and shape to hold two bottles of wine. It's my shipment of Muscat from the Purple Cow Vineyards in Forest Grove, Oregon!

It all started when my sister told me about a Spanish Muscat she tried that was very similar to those she has enjoyed in Alsace. I was surprised by this, because I know she's even less interested in sweet wine than I am, and I thought it must be similar to the Moscato d'Asti that I didn't especially care for. When I asked her about this, here's how she described the kind of Muscat that she likes: "The ones I have had have been very dry. It has a very fruity flavor, with a distinct note of citrus. So the wine has a very light, fresh taste."

Though I tend to like reds much better than whites, this description sounded great to me. So when I researched Muscat online and found that those of the Purple Cow Vineyards are favorably compared to what is made in Alsace, I was pretty excited to try it. I was even more excited to hear that the 2008 vintage is considered "dry"--in fact, the Purple Cow website called it a "cult classic for its supreme dryness"--and the 2009 is "off dry"--it was chilled with 1% residual sugar--which sounded like a perfect combination for one of my fun little taste tests. If there is anything I enjoy more than tasting a new wine, it is comparing two or three so I can try to decide which one I like best.

My only complaint about this whole procedure is that, in ordering these bottles from the Purple Cow website, I basically ended up buying two bottles for the price of . . . three. But I am in hopes that it will have been worth it. I've got the bottles chilling right now. I'm not sure I'll be up long enough for a taste test tonight, since I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn for work in the morning, but I promise one is forthcoming as soon as is humanly possible.

Oh, yeah, and speaking of "as soon as possible"--I do realize it has been more than two months since my last post. Rest assured that this is not because I haven't been enjoying a glass of wine on occasion. If you were pitying my lack of posting, understand that this did not mean a lack of quaffing. There was just nothing to write home about . . . until now.

Are you wondering at the picture? No, that's not what my FedEx guy looks like (thank goodness). That's not even what I look like right now, even though I am pretty happy. It's because for some reason, no matter how I rearranged my Google search terms for a Purple Cow Muscat image, Austin Powers kept popping up. I took it as a sign.