The name Piamater is somewhat unusual for a sweet wine, especially for me as a neurobiologist, who knows Pia Mater as the innermost cerebral membran. Less unusual today is that two wineries together produce one wine, in this case the oenologist Alicia Eyaralar from the winery Tandem in Navarre, together with the Andalusian winery Dimobe.
Spain
Majorca – Vi Dolç from Pla de Llevant
The wine we have tasted, the Dolç de Sa Vall of the winery Miquel Gelabert, originates from the DO (Denominacion de Origen) Pla de Llevant, located in the east of Majorca.
Compared to the DO Binisalem, which lies in the interior of Majorca, the DO Pla de Lllevant is said to have increased yields and to plant more varieties of international grape varieties. Climatically, there is a Mediterranean climate in both DOs, which means more precipitation from … Read more ...
Expressive Málaga PX Añejo
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 … Read more ...
Spanish Mistela – Floralis Moscatel
“We would like to introduce you to the Floralis Moscatel Oro sweet wine from the winery from Torres and at the same time arranged the dispatch of a product sample,” was written in the mail of an agency. In addition there was an attachment with informations about region, wine and winery. At that time I was in the process of working out more informations about Spanish sweet wines and therefore this wine was ok for me.. From the enclosed information … Read more ...
From the Solera – Catalonian sweet wine
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
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 ...
Majorca – Vi blanc dolç
Majorca had more than 10 million visitors last year. The least of them probably drink Majorcan wine, because the amount produced there annually of about 6 million bottles would not be enough.
Only 10% of the area of Majorca is planted with vines. 2,500 hectares of vineyards are spread over four wine growing areas. Almost two-thirds of the areas claim the Vino de la Tierra – Majorca and Serra de Tramuntana – Costa Nord, the rest is shared by the higher quality DO (Denominación de Origen) Binissalem and the DO Pla i Llevant, located in the southeast.
Anyone who has already drunk Majorcan wine could have already made the acquaintance of one of the indigenous grape varieties of the Balearic Islands. Above all, these are the red varieties Manto Negro, Callet and the white variety Prensal, also called Moll.
Dulce de Invierno – sweet wine from Rioja
The last wine tasted at Dinastía Vivanco, the tenth and last visited bodega in Rioja, was at the same time the first and only sweet wine of the entire Rioja wine journey in mid-May of this year. It was a sweet wine made from four of the five approved red grape varieties of the Rioja: Tempranillo (50%), Graciano (20%), Garnacha (20%) and Mazuelo (10%). A sweet wine made from this combination of grape varieties seems not gto be … Read more ...
Molino Real – fruity sweet Málaga
When speaking of Málaga,usually it is meant a sweet alcoholic wine known since antiquity. This wine is rich in alcohol because pur alcohol has been added and sweet, because the alcohol stopped the fermentation and thus preserved the sugar of the grapes.
The tourists in Malaga who wants to buy a sweet Málaga wine usually is totally confused by the variety offered. Pálido, Cream Añejo, Rojo Dorado, Parajete or one of the more than 20 allowed other names can … Read more ...
“Liquid raisins”: Sherry from PX or Moscatel
“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”.