Chances are, mentioning words like “Spumante” or “Moscato” will elicit a full-body shudder. These Italian sparkling wines have the reputation of being sweet, sugary and highly hangover-provoking. And for good reason. “It maybe has something to do with the millions of bottles of dubiously-produced Spumante d’Asti wine that flooded the U.S. market in the ‘80s,” says sommelier Ted Rink of Chicago’s BLVD Steakhouse.
It was almost impossible to hide from these industrial, budget bottles of Piedmontese bubbles. (Does anyone remember all the Martini and Rossi commercials?) But that’s what drinkers of that decade liked. “They had a taste for fruit-forward and more ‘sweet’ wines,” says Kaitlyn Ellis of Giusto in Newport, Rhode Island. So along with wine coolers, Beaujolais Nouveau, blue lagoons and other regrettable ‘80s drink trends, hyper-sweet Spumante d’Asti was everywhere.
