Matured white port – tannin, colour and aroma

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The history of  Kopke begins with Nicolau Köpke, who settled in Portugal as Consul General of the Hanseatic League in 1636, shipped the first bottles of wine as early as 1638 and rose to become a major port wine producer by buying an agricultural property in 1781. Through acquisitions, such as the Quinta de São Luiz

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Multi-layered – Martha’s Colheita Port


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Many wine drinkers know Vintage Port, whereas Colheita is largely unknown, and only few know which port wine style it is. Its brownish color identifies it as a Tawny type port and since the Portuguese word Colheita means harvest, a Colheita Port is a Tawny that comes from the grapes of a single vintage. A Vintage Tawny, so to speak, just like the Ruby typ Vintage port from a single vintage. But while the dark to black-red port wines of the Ruby type are aged in large barrels with little contact with atmospheric oxygen, the mostly amber to mahogany-colored

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Macvin – Tradition of the French Jura


Macvin Blanc du Jura Château d'Arlay

The name Macvin is more reminiscent of Scotland than the French wine-growing region of Jura, where the Macvin production has a long tradition. It is said that there has been a wine named Maquevin or Marc-vin already in the ninth century. The name Marc-vin indicates that Macvin consists of the french brandy Marc and wine, which means that it is a alcohol-fortified wine.

However, this is only partially true, because the Macvin is made from must according to the AOP rules. This does not exclude that the must already may have started fermentation. The Macvin may be red, rosé or white. In the red and rosé versions, only the … Read more ...

Sauvignon Blanc „Sweetheart“ – everybody’s darling!

Sauvignon blanc is not necessarily everyone’s favorite, at least for the dry wines. Some people because of its aromas can not drink enough of it , others refrain entirely from it because of the aromas. The flavors can vary greatly depending on the harvest time. With increasing maturity, the spectrum of aromas of grass, herbs, green fruits, boxwood, gooseberries, elderberries and yellow fruits often shifts, especially with ripened specimens supplemented with vegetables, asparagus and cabbage.

Among the best known dry Sauvignon Blanc are Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and those from New Zealand. Although Sauvignon Blanc is very prone to noble rot, it plays only a minor role in the well-known sweet wine … Read more ...

Port wines for beginners

Einstieg in die Portweinwelt Prowein 2015Port wine is not only available as a Ruby Port or a tan to amber-colored Tawny Port, but also as a white port wine and, for about 7 – 8 years, also in a rose-colored version. Axel Probst, probably the most famous German port wine expert, presented six different port wines at the Welcome to the World of Port Wine tasting at Prowein. Four of them are presented here, each corresponding to one of the port wine types already mentioned and costing less than € 20 (Tasted Wines), such they are really good for entering the world of port wine.

Churchill‘s Dry White Port
Orange-colored amber, apricot … Read more ...

Rutherglen Stickies: sweet wines from Australia

Rutherglen Flight Summer SchoolWine from “down under” was the dominant theme at the “Summer School 2014” of the Wine Academy in Rust. This included a tasting of sweet, alcohol-fortified wines from the Rutherglen wine region in northeast Victoria.

Rutherglen Muscat and Rutherglen Topaque are considered exceptional wines. However, this is less due to the grape varieties, but more to the type of production and the climatic conditions under which they are created. As the name suggests, Rutherglen Muscat is made from grapes of the Muscat variety, in this case from a particularly dark version of Muscat blanc à petit grains called Muscat Brown, Rutherglen Topaque from Muscadelle. Both grape … Read more ...