Put this in the category of “wine is more durable than we think.” I just popped a bottle of (very) inexpensive 1998 Moscato d’Asti. It was a throw-in from a mixed lot at a late '13 auction. I keep stuff like this in a 24-bottle wine fridge at home, and I needed the slot for a new purchase, so I opened it tonight. I figured it would go right down the drain. Not so; it’s as fresh as a 2012 I drank a few weeks ago. What an interesting and unexpected treat. It 's the little stuff that makes me happy, I guess. Now carry on with your DRC tasting notes! 
I forgot to identify the wine: 1998 Il Fachetto Tenuta del Fant. Current vintage is $13 at the store across the street from me. I think my price at auction was about one dollar.
HOW MANY POINTS!?!
At least 129.7
SOLD!
Less all-caps, I’m rarely surprised to learn that wine is tougher/more ageworthy than we think, but Moscato surprises me a little. Good to know!
Good work, Kevin! It makes sense. With the sugar and acid, it can age like auslesen, BAs, TBAs and SGNs, although not as long. With the fizz, it should age somewhat like Champagne. Contratto makes a somewhat hard-to-find luxury cuvee ($30 a bottle many years ago when last I bought it) called De Miranda, which ages just like Champagne. I suspect that old Moscato would be an acquired taste for most, since it is hard to beat the fresh, vibrant, refreshing tatse of new-release Moscato, but it can be great. People used to think that Barbera would not age because of the absence of a tannic structure, and that has been proven wrong as well…
To his credit, Parker was the first big name [at least in America] to take Moscato seriously - the WS and Suckling finally published their very first Moscato review only about ten tears ago, and I don’t remember that Tanzer ever had any interest in the stuff.
But I remember reading a Parker review of a [Paolo Saracco?] Moscato, back in the day, where he was [very correctly] raving about what a fantastic bargain that it was, but lamenting the fact that it went bad after about six months, and that you couldn’t cellar the stuff.
Based on that advise, I never cellared any.
And I remember that the question of possible cellarworthiness got kicked around again, a few years ago, when Mr. Dressner [RIP] started importing a Moscato label.
But good grief, if most styles of Moscato, bottled under [most of] the most common corks, were to prove cellar-worthy, then that would open up all sorts of new possibilities for the skinflint penny-pinching bargain-hunting hopelessly arrogant down-market oenophile wine snob with delusions of grandeur.
Just don’t tell the Hipsters - they’re already pushing the price of Bisson Prosecco out beyond $20.
[Which I guess begs the question of whether Prosecco might also be cellary-worthy?]
PS: In your case, had the sugariness of the wine started to recede?
I.e. had it moved noticeably from, say, a “Spatlese” level of sweetness, down to something more like an “Halbtrocken” level of sweetness?
I know that that’s pretty much of an impossible question to answer - if you never got to try the wine when it was first released - but I was wondering whether you had any thoughts about what might be going on with the sugar levels.
If the cork seal remains tight, then there’s probably going to be some weird interplay between the CO2 and the sugars and the fruit esters which you wouldn’t get in a normal wine?
Or maybe a complete absence of interplay - a chemical stasis of some sort? a suspended animation? - if the cork seal were to remain tight?
Man, I tell you, though, just the thought of maybe being able to cellar Moscato d’Asti is about the awesomest possibility in this hobby in years.
BUT DON’T ANYONE TELL THE HIPSTERS!
THAT INCLUDES YOU, ERIC ASIMOV!!!
ED: It looks like Bill Klapp broached the subject, but I’d like to hear more about the sugar levels.
Thanks!!!
It really is hard to say if there was any mild degradation. The fizz and acid were slightly less sharp than I would expect from a new bottle, and there was a pear flavor that was perhaps slightly more prominent. But it was essentially the same as a recent-vintage Il Frachetto. If the sugars had receded, I could not tell. Any sweeter and it probably would not have been to my taste. Maybe I just got lucky, but probably not; this was an auction bottle, after all. If I had served it to an unsuspecting guess, I’m confident they would not have known it was an old bottle.
I have drunk some older Moscato d’Asti. I have found that it gets sweeter and less bright, but is still quite drinkable. Traditionally, this wine is drunk during the holidays following the vintage, but it can be at its peak for up to 2 years. After that, it often loses a little fizz and acidity, which makes it seem more sweet. All in all, I not surprised you found it quite enjoyable, even at this age.
Okay, that’s weird.
Well I guess there are two big questions here:
-
What percentage of all Moscato d’Asti corks seal the bottle fairly well for the long term? Versus the percentage which fail pretty quickly? [Assuming that the CO2 isn’t lost internally to some weird chemical reaction.]
-
If the cork does leak, and you lose most of the CO2, then you’re still looking at the question of what does an aged [dessert] Muscat taste like?
I might have a thing or two to say on this count, but then it also seems that both of us would prefer not the see the price pushed any further out 
Yes, but did it have oodles of sugar? Kudos to the winemaker for this world-class effort! 
Cool note, thanks for sharing!
It did not have oodles of sugar. It was sweet but not overly so.
I still have one more of the same bottle plus a '96 Chiarlo Nivole, all from the same auction lot (which was strangely built around a '93 Valentini Trebbiano–and why I acquired all of these wines). The '96 has signs of seepage, so it probably is toast. But when I get around to opening the other '98 Il Falchetto, I will report back to let you all know if the results are similar.
OK, now I kind of understand why you bought these. Honestly, I’m no better. There’s every chance I’d be seriously tempted to buy a whole pallet of Tavernello if it was built around, say, a half-case of Valentini Trebbiano
The Forno brothers who make that wine are among our oldest friends in Italy. Re points, they recently got Tre Bicchieri from the GR for that wine. I will send a link to this thread to Giorgio.
Funny–I looked back at the bottles, and most have a WineExpo sticker on them. It looks like you had a hand in all of this, Roberto. Thank you!
This was the full lot, which I got for $100. I would have paid more just for the Valentini.
(1) 2002 Binyamina Muscat
(1) 1996 M. Chiarlo Moscato d’Asti Nivole
(2) 1998 Il Falchetto Tenuta del Fant
(1) 1994 Castello della Sala (Antinori) Muffato
(1) 1993 Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo
(1) 2001 Long Vineyards Johannisberg Riesling Botrytis
Hmmm…the only wines of that list that we have ever sold are the Il Falchetto and the Valentini.
Re corks, Giorgio uses extra long, almost Gaja style corks in that bottle.
Re the pear flavors, that wine is often more golden delicious apple / ripe pear in flavor than the usual orange / citrus profile.
Strange bedfellows
Mature/old Valentini bottles hardly ever surface at auction in my neck of the woods, but if they did, I imagine a bottle of 20-year-old Valentini Trebbiano might indeed easily go for twice as much as you paid for that entire lot. An excellent buy.
Somebody is playing fast and loose with your stickers.
The cork was indeed very long–the top was completely dry and looked new, but almost immediately below was saturated. It largely held together when pulled, but the very bottom splintered. Maybe the exceptional seal gets some credit for the freshness of the wine.
I tasted the pear in the recent vintage that I tried, but this was more pronounced. I don’t know whether that is due to age, the lessening of acidity that might otherwise mask it, or the vintage.
Hard to believe, but I was the only bidder!