Portugal

Matured sweet wines – fresh and youthful

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Hans had already opened some excellent wines to the excellent French dinner, including, for example, a 2013 Chevalier Montrachet from Domaine Leflaive and a 2005 Le Pavillon from Chapoutier. For cheese and dessert he had selected matured sweet wines, from German predicates such as Spätlese on Vin Doux Naturel to Madeira – all excellent.

1994 Niederhäuser Herrmannshöhle Spätlese, Dönnhoff
Quince, pear and white peach on the nose, delicately smoky. Very fresh on the palate, prominent acidity, mild fruit, juicy, lean, mineral notes. Excellent wine, which proved to be an ideal companion to Fourme d’Ambert with quince jelly, because it took out the pungency of the cheese and brought out its … 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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Port wines for beginners

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Einstieg in die Portweinwelt Prowein 2015Port wine is not only available as a Ruby Port or a tan to amber-colored Tawny Port, but also as a white port wine and, for about 7 – 8 years, also in a rose-colored version. Axel Probst, probably the most famous German port wine expert, presented six different port wines at the Welcome to the World of Port Wine tasting at Prowein. Four of them are presented here, each corresponding to one of the port wine types already mentioned and costing less than € 20 (Tasted Wines), such they are really good for entering the world of port wine.

Churchill‘s Dry White Port
Orange-colored amber, apricot … Read more ...

Tawny Port from 4 decades

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Portweinverkostung Tawny Jewels Prowein 2015

The Insituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) conducted several port wine tastings at Prowein fair 2015. Port wine expert Axel Probst, member of the Brotherhood Confraria do Vinho do Porto, moderated the tasting, labeled Port Wine Treasures from 4 Decades, in which, with the exception of a Fine White Port, he presented matured Tawny or Colheita, i.e. barrel-matured Tawny Ports from one harvest year.

For all longer matured Tawny, as well as for the Colheita, a maturation period of at least seven years in large wooden barrels (pipas) is required, but many of these wines are matured longer. Years of contact with the … Read more ...

Sweet wines with spicy desserts

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Gewuerzkaffee-Birnen mit Milchschaum
Which wine goes best with spice coffee pears with milk foam? In addition to espresso, the spiced coffee also contains cinnamon sticks, cardamom and cloves. The pears are poached in that mixture overnight. At the first attempt, we underestimated the flavor of the coffee and therefore were wrong choicing the sweet wine.

Knowing about the spiciness of the coffee, we chose the Deluxe Cream Sherry Capataz Andrés from Lustau and the 10 Years Old Bual Madeira from Henriques & Henriques for further tasting (Tasted wines).

Deluxe Cream Capataz Andres Lustau

Lustau’s cream had aromas of walnut, dried fruits such as plum, pear and fig, mocha, complemented by smoky and roasted notes. Soft and … Read more ...

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