Bartenura Moscato

More than any other type of wine, my husband and I buy Moscato.  It's sweeter than a lot of wine, and my husband likes his wine sweet.  It's usually a safe bet that we'll like Moscato, some more than others, but we usually don't have trouble finishing the bottle.

Well, we were in Vegas last week, and wine/cocktail/beer prices at restaurants/bars there aren't cheap.  Instead of paying $15/glass, we decided to buy a bottle of wine at the nearby Walgreens. 

We almost always stay at the Palazzo when we're in Vegas, and right on the strip in front of the Palazzo and the Venetian is a huge Walgreens.  The Palazzo and the Venetian are connected inside, and you can access Walgreens by walking down a long hallway in the Venetian (near the canals).  When you exit, you go down an escalator, and you're there.  This Walgreens has everything you'd expect it to have plus lots of Vegas souvenirs.  The liquor bottles cost about double what I'd usually pay at my local Total Wine back in L.A., but it's definitely cheaper than drinking out.  Besides, when you have a beautiful hotel suite with a strip view, it's a luxury to stay in.

We looked at several different types of Moscato, but in the end, the label on the Bartenura bottle intrigued us.  I know you can't judge a book (bottle) by it's cover (label), but we had to know if it tasted as good as it looked.  Also, it was an Italian wine, and we tend to like Italian wines.

The verdict?  It's very sweet, a great dessert wine.  In fact, it was our dessert that night.  It's also crisp and refreshing.  We didn't eat anything with it; it was great by itself.  However, it's not the best Moscato I've ever had.  I'm glad we tried it, but for the price (about $20), it's not as good as I expected.  I've paid less for Moscato in the past and been even more pleased. 

However, props to the Palazzo for having everything you need to enjoy a bottle of wine in your room...wine glasses, bottle-size ice-bucket and even a corkscrew.  Ahh!

Happy drinking!