Beringer - Moscato @@@@ (4 corks)

Retails : $8.99 (Total wine)

If you have a serious sweet tooth, this is the wine for you. Muscats are to wine as chocolate cake is to food---a decadent treat. Perfect as an aperitif or complimented by a simple assortment of cheese and fruit, Moscatos/Muscats are what I imagine the gods refer to when they talk of "ambrosia."

Like Riesling, muscat is an easy wine to acquire a taste for. It's a distincitive taste: a syrupy consistency, sweet honey, fruit or floral accents and just a hint of acidity. There is absolutely no dryness in this kind of wine.

For my personal tastes, this isn't the kind of wine that I could handle a lot of--say the entire bottle. One glass is plenty as the sweetness can be overpowering. The Beringer Moscato is an excellent choice when confronted with Muscats -- which can be expensive and come in tiny bottles. The initial taste is like an explosion in your mouth: sweet and flavorful, plenty of honey and apricot flavors. The aftertaste is a little too acidic for me, but for most habitual white wine drinkers, this won't come as a surprise. I wouldn't pair this (or any) muscat with a main course, it's much too sweet to work well with most meals. But, as a compliment to, or alone, as a dessert, it's perfect.

Final Words: Muscats are a MUST for people just starting to get their feet wet in the wine world. This is an excellent (and highly affordable) choice in this series.