Fortified Wines

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 with the three Cream Sherries, we have tasted.

The name Cream for this type of sweet sherry goes back to Harveys’ Bristol Cream, which introduced it in the 1860s … 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 wines until the mid-1950s. The Vintage Fortified Shiraz was first produced there in 1928. The tasted Vintage Fortified Shiraz 2007 comes from old Shiraz vines, in some cases from the … 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 VDN produced in France, I met the Ambré type Amber (Amber) and very appreciate it since then.
To an Aargauer Rueblitorte (recipe under sweet wine and food), which contained … 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 ...

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 Quinta do Crasto, represented by Dirk van der Niepoort, Francisca van Zeller, João Roquette Álvares Ribeiro, Francisco Olazabal and Tómas Roquette, all from the respective owner families (from … 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 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 ...

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 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 ...

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 many European royal houses, has supported this.

Even today, Commandaria is made from the two most grown grapes in Cyprus – the autochthonous white grape Xinisteri (23% of all vineyards) … Read more ...

“Liquid raisins”: Sherry from PX or Moscatel

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Innenhof Fernando de Castilla

“Like syrup! – Liquid raisins! – Incredibly sweet! ”- this and the like can sometimes be heard when tasting sherry made from Pedro Ximénez (PX) or Moscatel grapes. These Sherries are definitely sweet, as Moscatel sherry must have at least 160 g / l residual sugar – PX sherry even at least 212 g / l. Simple, not very mature specimens can then often be too little complex and such appear “just sweet”.

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