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No-Fuss Guide · No. 18

Sweet sparkling wine: Moscatel, Asti, Moscato d’Asti and Brachetto (and the sugar scale)

The truly sweet sparkling wines are Brazilian Moscatel, Italian Asti and Brachetto, which is red; and there's their lightly sparkling cousin, Moscato d’Asti. And the catch lives on the sugar scale: brut is dry; demi-sec and doce (sweet) are the sweet ones; and “extra dry”, in Europe, is sweeter than brut.

The sugar scale, in grams per liter

The word on the label tells you how much sugar is left. In Brazil, the scale was set by a 2014 decree, revoked in 2025; the market sticks to the same numbers (the dry or sweet guide tells the story). In Europe, the scale comes from a 2019 regulation, and it's a little different:

That's why “extra dry” is confusing: the name says dry, but on the European scale it has more sugar than brut. And in Europe the label can be off by at most 3 g/L either way.

Moscatel, Brazil's sweet one

Regular sparkling wine gets its bubbles from a second fermentation of the wine. Sparkling Moscatel is different, by law: the gas comes from the fermentation of the moscatel grape must itself, in a closed vessel, with at least 4 atmospheres, 7 to 10% alcohol and at least 20 g/L of sugar. Embrapa explains how: the must ferments in an autoclave, which at a certain point is sealed to trap the gas, and when it reaches the right point, the fermentation is stopped with cold and filtration; about 65 to 75 g/L of the grape's own sugar is left. Being sweet and low in alcohol, it's meant to be drunk young, ideally in the year it was made.

Farroupilha, in the Serra Gaúcha, has an Indication of Provenance just for its Moscatel wines: eight authorized grapes, at least 85% of them from the region. Embrapa suggests serving it well chilled, at 4 to 6 °C, with fruit, passion fruit mousse or ice cream.

Asti and Moscato d’Asti, from Piedmont

Both come from the same appellation, in northern Italy, and are made only from Moscato Bianco. Moscato d’Asti is lightly sparkling, with gentle bubbles (up to 2.5 bar), and has just 4.5 to 6.5% alcohol in the glass: the rest of the grape's sugar stays. A producer from the region describes the slow fermentation, stopped at around 5% alcohol, and suggests serving it at 10 °C with fruit desserts. Asti is the fully sparkling one, with at least 6% alcohol. Heads up: since the rules changed, Asti can range from “pas dosé” to sweet. Look for the word on the label.

Brachetto d’Acqui, the sweet red

Also from Piedmont, made from the aromatic red grape Brachetto, almost always in a closed tank (the Charmat method). One example, from the producer's spec sheet: 7.3% alcohol, 110 g/L of sugar, served at 8 or 10 °C, with strawberries and fruit tart.

And Lambrusco?

When it's lightly sparkling, it follows another European scale, the one for non-sparkling wines: amabile is medium-sweet, up to 45 g/L; dolce, above that. On the shelf, the word amabile already tells you it's on the sweet side.

What to pair it with

WSET's rule for dessert is sweet with sweet: the wine needs to be sweeter than the dish, or it will seem drier, bitter and fruitless. Fruit and fruit desserts show up in the suggestions from the producers and from Embrapa. And sweet isn't a flaw: you like it? Go for it, and it's great that you found out what you like.