Dried-grape wine

Muffato della Sala – Italian Sauternes?

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At our Italian evening Hans and I agreed in the judgment of the Muffato della Sala 2011 by Castello della Sala: In the nose like Sauternes, on the palate somehow stronger, the sweetness a bit too noticeable, there are some similarities with Passito, nevertheless no Passito – in short one very good, original Italian sweet wine.

The Castello della Sala, a winery owned by the Antinori family, is located near Orvieto. There, on soils infused with fossils, loamy, from sedimentary and volcanic origin, the vines for the muffato flourish. The Muffato is made from 60% Sauvignon Blanc, the remaining 40% comes from Grechetto, Semillon, Traminer and Riesling. Classified … Read more ...

Expressive Málaga PX Añejo

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A round trip in Andalusia was on the program of our friends and neighbors, including some days were planned in Málaga. So I asked Heinz and Mausi to bring me a sweet Málaga wine, emphasizing that type, age, sweetness and style are not important at all, just the first sweet Málaga wine they see.

For sweet Málaga wines it is not easy to reconcile the manifold nomenclatures. There is Vino de licor, Vino de uvas sobremaduradas and Vino de uvas pasificadas, the still well-comprehensible classification according to the duration ripening Noble (2-3 years), Añejo (3-5 years) and Transañejo (over 5 years), but beyond there are many others … Read more ...

Santorini’s red sweetness

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Santorini is not only known for its white-blue postcard idylls, but also for the Vinsanto, a sweet wine from the white grapes Assyrtiko, Aidani and Athiri. Less known, however, is a red sweet wine of Santorini, made purely from the variety Mandilaria. A wine of this type, the Apiliotis from the Domaine Sigalas, Alex had brought as a gift from his original home, when he was our guest for dinner together with his wife and children.

Both wines are made similarly. This starts with the Koulora training system where the wine shoots are “braided” into a wreath, within which the grapes grow and are thus protected from … Read more ...

Vin de Paille from Côtes du Jura

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On the western foothills of the Massif de Jura, along the road N 83, there is, in an altitude of about 200 to 400 meters, the approximately 650 hectares large wine-growing area Côtes du Jura. In a semi-continental, rather cool and with about 1100 mm annual precipitation also rather wet climate, there are produced about 25,000 hectoliters of wine per year, mainly (~ 2/3) white wine, the rest red wine, Vin Jaune and also about 550 hectoliters of Vin de Paille, as straw wine is called in France.

Two white varieties Chardonnay and Savagnin and also two red varieties Poulsard and Trousseau may be used to produce Vin … Read more ...

Sicilian Notissimo

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The baroque splendor of Noto is known beyond the borders of Sicily. Less known, however, is the Moscato di Noto from the variety Moscato Bianco pressed. The variety is quite common in Italian sweet wines. The Moscato di Noto is often sweet – but it is also traded in a dry version. In the regulations of the DOC Noto the sweetness of the wine is not determined, only aromatic and varietal should the Moscato di Noto be.
Exactly to the letter of the DOC regulations, however, the other three variants of the Moscato di Noto must be. The Moscato di Noto Spumante must have more than 50 grams of residual … Read more ...

Swiss straw wine from the Rhine

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From Ticino to Aargau our Swiss wine tour led us this year in June. We also got to know the Räuschling, an indigenous Swiss grape variety, of which only 25 hectares are cultivated worldwide, 18 hectares of which at Lake Zurich. The parents of the grape variety are the grape varieties White Heunisch, also known as Gouais Blanc or Gwäss as well as the vine named in the Jura Savagnin Blanc and in Switzerland Heida. Gouais Blanc, which is also a direct ancestor of Riesling, seems to provide for the very strong acid and therefore predestined this grape variety as very good for sweet … Read more ...

Ruché Passito di Castagnole Monferrato

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Vineyards in  Monferrato © pixabay.com

Since 2010 the Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato has a separate DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) although the grape variety, so to speak, was rediscoveredonly in the 1970s in Piedmont. Its then discoverer, Father Don Giacomo Cauda, ​​was so taken with the quality, body, aromas, flavors and aromas of the wines of his ten rows of ruché vines that he not only cultivated more of this variety, but even to inspire winemaker to increase plantings of it. Already in 1987 there was the DOC status, which at that time as well as today and also in case of the DOCG

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Cashmere from Tramin’s limestone

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Wine cellar tour with Elena Walch

One third of the South Tyrolean winegrowing areas can be found in the Unterland winegrowing zone, which is the largest of the seven winegrowing areas in South Tyrol. The region Unterland is also the warmest and extends from Altenburg, about 5 km north of Tramin, along the Adige River to the Salurner Klause, the German-Italian language border. The Unterland also has the highest vineyards in South Tyrol. At an altitude of 1,000 m, the grapes for a well-known dry wine from South Tyrol, Feldmarschall von Fenner, ripen on the Fennberg near Kurtatsch. The proximity to Lake Garda with its mild climatic

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Via dei sapori: Friulian Picolit

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The Consorzio Friuli Venezia Giulia Via dei Sapori had invited to trie Friulan products from the kitchen and the cellar. On 13 February this year, seven restaurateurs, twenty winegrowers and eleven delicatessen producers presented local specialties from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Munich. An excellent opportunity to introduce the outstanding products, the excellent, innovative and at the same time traditional cuisine as well as the variety of the very good Friulian wines to a wider audience. The offer, such as San Daniele ham, matured Montasio cheese, zabaione ice cream, sepia tagliatelle with young artichokes or pumpkin flan with cod and freshly passed tomatoes showed that the Friulan cuisine, coined … Read more ...

Marsala – fruity sweetness from Sicily

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Marsala is available as both dry and sweet wine. Sweet representatives of the Marsala can be found in the versions Fine, Superiore and Superiore Riserva, because these types are available in both secco and semisecco as well as dolce. We tasted a Fino Rubino and a Superiore Riserva Oro, both of the dolce type, which means a residual sugar content of more than 100 grams per liter.
Since 1880 there are, located in the province of Trapani, Cantine Pellegrino, whose vineyards are planted mainly with local varieties such as Grillo, Catarratto, Inzolia, Malvasia Bianca, Nero d’Avola and Zibibo (Muscat … Read more ...

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