Fortified Wines

From the Solera – Catalonian sweet wine

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Catalonia, currently in the news because its efforts of independence from Spain, is better known for cava as well as its red wines from the Priorat or Monsant. Sweet wines, which until the 1950s together with Cava held a leading role in Catalonia, are of minor importance nowadays, best known are still the sweet wines with untypical ageing notes, often varnish-like flavours, of the DO Terra Alta and the Garnatxa de l’Empordà. Sweet wines from the Tarragona wine region are … Read more ...

Cream-Sherry: Oloroso plus sweetness

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Cream means sweetened sherry, a category that also includes Pale Cream and Medium, is considered by quite a few sherry lovers as a purely commercial product. This may be true if Oloroso is sweetened by the addition of sweet or even cooked, concentrated grape must (Arrope). But that holds not true if of blending a dry sherry is done with a sweet sherry, such as PX (Pedro Ximénez) or Moscatel, as is the case … Read more ...

Vintage Fortified Shiraz – Australian Port Wine?

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Definitely no! Although both are similar in winemaking, but the Vintage Fortified Shiraz 2007 of the winery d’Arenberg presented completely different, unlike Vintage Port.
Although Australia has been known for its full-fruity wines for many years, from the mid-19th century, for about 100 years, the alcohol-fortified wines, referred to in Australia as “fortified”, have dominated Australian viticulture.
The family winery d’Arenberg, founded in 1912 in the wine growing region of McLaren Vale in South Australia, produced mainly alcohol-fortified … Read more ...

Rivesaltes Ambré – amber coloured complexity

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My first experiences with Vin Doux Naturel (VDN) were characterized by fresh dark red, reductively vinified Banyuls (rimage), only later followed the oxidatively vinified bright to brick red Banyuls (traditionnel or Grand Cru) and finally the other types of VDN. This order is not surprising, because Banyuls is the most well-known and frequently represented wine in the German wine trade of the sweet French VDN. During a visit to Roussillon, which accounts for over 80% of the total … 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 … Read more ...

Port wines of the Douro Boys

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For more than 15 years, the Douro Boys are probably the best advertising medium for the Douro region and its wines. Best known are the port wines from the Douro, besides there are excellent dry, red and white still wines. To gain more prominence for these dry wines, in addition to the port wine, is a major concern of the Douro Boys. The Douro Boys are the wineries, Niepoort, Quinta Vale D.Maria, Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Vale Meão and … Read more ...

Port Meio-Seco – less sweet

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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 … Read more ...

Port Wine – Traditional Late Bottled Vintage

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quinta-do-vale-dona-maria_lr
© 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

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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… Read more ...

Commandaria – Legendary from Cyprus

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Commandaria

Commandaria is reminiscent of command – and really, the name goes back to the headquarters of a Crusader order, which was stationated in the region, where the from the ancient world known Cypriot sweet wine Nama was made. End of the 12th century, this headquarter named La Grande Commandarie was the eponym of this wine, which is still known as Commandaria. At that time, the export of Commandaria began to flourish and the fact of being one favorite wines of … Read more ...

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