Molino Real – fruity sweet Málaga

When speaking of Málaga,usually it is meant a sweet alcoholic wine known since antiquity. This wine is rich in alcohol because pur alcohol has been added and sweet, because the alcohol stopped the fermentation and thus preserved the sugar of the grapes.

The tourists in Malaga who wants to buy a sweet Málaga wine usually is totally confused by the variety offered. Pálido, Cream Añejo, Rojo Dorado, Parajete or one of the more than 20 allowed other names can be found on the bottles, in which the sweet wine made from the grape varieties Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel (Muscat d’Alexandrie) is offered. The used terms may refer … Read more ...

Port Meio-Seco – less sweet


There were some wineries from the Douro, who also presented port wine in addition to dry wines, at the Wines of Portugal Tasting on the 13th floor of the representative office of a German noble automobile brand, where one also had a great view over Munich.blick-ueber-muenchen

However, my time planned was too little, so I limited myself to only two port wine producers. Pocas, because I had got aquainted to its representative in the elevator going up to the tasting in the 13th floor and Quinta do Infantado only because this Quinta offers their port wines not only in 750 ml bottles, but also in the smaller quantities of … Read more ...

K. Wechsler – Elegantly balanced sweet wines


rieslingtrauben

Katharina Wechsler entered the family winery first 2009 and in a short time she became well-known with the wine lovers. She presented her very elegant, drinking-inspiring wines in the Munich wine shop Furore – including two sweet wines.

The winery Wechsler manages 17 hectares in Westhofen in the famous vine locations Steingrube, Kirchspiel and Morstein. The Riesling Schweisströpfchen 2015, which we have tasted, owes its name to a part of the Kirchspiel, in which the work on the calcareous, deep loam soils is always very sweat-producing.

The Riesling Benn Beerenauslese 2015 comes from a vineyard of the same name, a small monopol vineyard of 6.5 ha with … Read more ...

Port Wine – Traditional Late Bottled Vintage

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© Quinta do Vale Dona Maria

Chocolate desserts are usually accompanied by red dessert wines, with us being mostly red Vin Doux Naturel from France. Sometimes a change might be fine, so we have chosen as a companion to a chocolate chili mousse a vintage port wine. These show up the name vintage and are vinified from grapes of a vintage. Three are types of it: Vintage, Single Quinta Vintage and Late Bottled Vintage, abbreviated LBV. Vintage is produced only in very good years, must be registered by the producer at the Port Wine Institute (IVDP) and confirmed after organoleptic tasting to be vintage-worthy. Single Quinta Vintage is produced in good years, but does not require registration and acceptance at the IVDP. However, both wines in principle undergo the same vinification and he same aging, 2 years in barrels followed by bottling and maturing. Entirely different the Late Bottled Vintage, which usually matures for 4-6 years in the

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Samos – greek Grand Cru

samos-grand-cru-partThere are 3000 years of viticulture on Samos. Even today, Muscat Blanc á Petits Grains thrives under the burning southern sun for the sweet Samos wine. The grapes grow mostly on small terraces on the northern slopes of the Ambelos Mountains, up to 800 meters altitude.
The EOSS (Union of Cooperatives Vinicoles de Samos), the Association of Winegrowers’ Cooperatives on Samos, formed in 1934 from 26 local cooperatives, is not only responsible for the vinification and quality of sweet Samos wines, but is also responsible for marketing and public relations. Nearly 80% of the approximately 70,000 hl Samos per year are exported.
There are four different varieties of samos wine, … Read more ...

Melsheimer – Riesling from feinherb to fruity sweet


steillagen-bei-traben-trarbach
Steep vineyard in Traben-Trarbach

Around half of the vineyards of the Melsheimer winery in Reil are extremly steep slopes, Mr. Melsheimer senior told us in mid-April this year when he showed us around the winery and brought us closer to history, vineyards and vinification of the Melsheimer winery. There are now many steep slopes on the Moselle, but only 5% of them are among the steepest – with a share of 50% probably a challenge in viticulture. Mr. Melsheimer senior renounced various plant protection products, which his son Thorsten consistently continued, first by converting to ecological, then biodynamic viticulture and then in 2013 finally with the Demeter certification.

Around 3/4 of the slightly more than 11 hectares of vineyards, which all are exclusively planted with Riesling, are in the vineyard Mullay-Hofberg, situated directly above the river Moselle. Their southeast orientation together with the barren slate soil ensure long-lasting, excellent ripening conditions.

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Ligurian Ambrosia – Moscatello di Taggia

ligurischer-weinbauThe Moscatello di Taggia has been a welcome guest at the English and Flemish royal courts as well as at least some papal tables since the 14th century. For a long time, this wine was considered a symbol of Ligurian viticulture, until in the 19th century the phylloxera decimated the existence of this variety to the point of insignificance and thus the grape variety was forgotten. It was only in 2003 that around 20 plants of this grape variety were rediscovered as part of an oenological research project by the University of Turin in the municipality of Ceriana (province of Imperia).
The winemaker Eros Mammoloti had already initiated this search … Read more ...

Verduzzo – typically Friulan

Zitronen-Ricotta-Mandel-KuchenIt is said in Friuli that the Verduzzo was drunk by the farmers at the time of the fiefs, while the landed gentry drank the aristocratic sweet Picolit. Even today, the Picolit coming from the Collio orientale del Friuli, outside Friuli, the better known of the two. The Verduzzo is however the typical sweet wine from Friuli. It is made from the grape Verduzzo Friulano as a sweet (amabile or dolce) DOC wine in the Friulian wine regions Collio Orientale, Friuli Annia, Friuli Aquileia, Grave and Isonzo. In Carso, Collio and Latisana the Verduzzo is not pruduced as DOC wine. There is also a sweet Verduzzo RiservaRead more ...

Matured sweet wines from Wachau and Kamptal

Blick auf Spitz in der Wachau mit Tausendeimerberg
Spitz in the Wachau with view on the Tausendeimerberg

Hans had invited to taste Austrian sweet wines, this time already matured ones, mostly from Riesling. This grape variety does not play the main role in Austrian viticulture, as on the Rhine and its tributaries. However, it is the second most widely cultivated white grape variety in the vineyards located along the Danube, in the Wachau, in Kremstal and Kamptal – but by a long way behind the main vine Grüner Veltliner.

Warm Pannonian eastern air together with a moderate western Antlantic influence, as well as moist cool falling winds from the Waldviertel and Weinviertel

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Moscato di Scanzo from Bergamo

Moscato di Scanzo II
“É un regalo” said Gabriele, when I asked him about the price of the bottle Moscato di Scanzo. In his restaurant Sali e Tabacchi in Maggiana on Lake Como we had celebrated the wedding of a friendly couple this weekend and he had noticed that I had searched in vain for this wine in the surrounding wine shops. Overnight, he organized a Moscato di Scanzo from a winemaker friend. It was from the neighboring community of Scanzorosciate and thus a Vino da Tavola and not the Scanzo from the DOCG, but still a wine from the grape Moscato di Scanzo and dolce – a circumstance that did not impair his … Read more ...