A visit to the Bodega Tío Pepe of González-Byass in Jerez de la Frontera is practically a “must” if you are exploring sherry in the sherry triangle between the cities of Jerez, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. A visit to this bodega was also on the agenda of the trip of the wine academy beginning of October this year.
Dried-grape wine
Greek sweet temptations
Greece is one of the oldest wine countries and better known for its dry wines and its indigenous grape varieties, but less for its sweet wines, except perhaps for the sweet Samos wines and the Vinsanto of Santorini.
More than 60 suppliers from Greece attended the fair Prowein 2015, including Achaia Clauss from Patras, a well-known wine producer in Greece. Three sweet wines of this manufacturer I have tasted at the fair Prowein. One of them, rather simple and uncomplicated, … Read more ...
Aleatico dell‘ Elba with Schiaccia Briaca
Aleatico is an indigenous red variety of Central and Southern Italy, mainly of Latium, Umbria, Tuscany and Puglia. The DOC or DOCG wines produced from Aleatico are mainly amabile or dolce, that means semi-sweet or sweet. There is sweet Aleatico mostly in two different forms: as Passito and as alcohol-fortified Liquoroso.
In most regions with Aleatico it is prohibited to use this aromatic muscat-like tasting grapes for dry red wines . There are dry IGT wines, however, produced from … Read more ...
Rutherglen Stickies: sweet wines from Australia
Wine 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 … Read more ...