PX-Sherry Bertola – herbal sweetness


Courtyard Bodegas Diez-Mérito

Pedro Ximénez Sherry is one of the sweetest wines in the world. Only the Pedro Ximénez grape variety is used for its production. For this purpose, the overripe grapes are dried in the sun after the harvest, which not only increases the sugar content, but also the aromas and at the same time the acidity. Moscatel sherry is made the same way. These two wines are so-called

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Floral Riesling Kabinett from Wolfer Sonnenlay

© Chris Flower Pixabay

Konstantin Weiser and Alexandra Künstler started with leased 1.8 hectares in the Enkircher Ellergrub. Today they cultivate 4.6 hectares, exclusively Riesling, in Enkirch these are Ellergrub, Zeppwingert and Steffensberg sites, and besides the Trabener Gaispfad, Wolfer Sonnenlay and some smaller steep plots

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Taut Auslese from the red shale


Red shale (Rotliegendes) © Wein vom Roten Hang e.V.

The Rheinhessen wine-growing region comprises 3 areas, 24 major sites and 432 individual sites, at least that is how it can be read in Wikipedia, not a word about the fact that some of the best and most well-known wine sites in Germany can be found there. In any case the Roter Hang has to be named, which is

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Santo(rin)i’s Christmas wine – Vinsanto

© lyager Pixabay

The wines of Santorini differ in one essential point from almost all other Greek wines. The grapes come from real-root vines, means they are not grafted, as the phylloxera cannot survive in the barren, sandy soil of the island, which consists of volcanic ash and pumice. The vine training system is done in a rarely used way: the vine shoots are “braided” into a wreath,

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Classic chocolate companion – Maury Grenat


I can seldom resist the naturally sweet French Vin Doux Naturel wines, this is only partly due to the wonderful holiday memories of Roussillon, the region where 80% of Vin Doux Naturel is produced and – due to its omnipresence there – also consumed in my opinion. I think my first encounter with a Banyuls Rimage as companion of a chocolate dessert was probably much more formative. That was most probably the reason why we chose this wine style of Vin Doux Naturel for the chocolate mousse.  A  style with very fruity notes due to

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Benificio A – Sandeman’s VAU Vintage Port 2000

© RAM21 Pixabay

Sandeman, an important sherry and port wine house, owned by the Portuguese company Sogrape since 2001, offers very high quality vintage ports. An ideal Christmas present for someone who likes to drink red port. So it’s the best to order more of it! At Christmas we enjoyed the Vau Vintage Port 2000 from Sandeman with homemade chocolate ice cream, which it went very well with.

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Apasionado Dulce de José Pariente

© Bodegas José Pariente

Due to its naturally high acidity and its susceptibility to botrytis, Sauvignon Blanc is excellently suited for sweet and noble sweet wines – and is in the well-known sweet wine Sauternes an important part, albeit smaller in quantity. It is therefore not surprising that sweet Sauvignon Blanc wines can be found in many countries. We tasted a sweet wine from the Rueda region in Spain, the Apasionado Dulce 2015 from Bodegas José Pariente.

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Australian Semillon – “Special sale dessert wine”

The winery De Bortoli was founded 90 years ago by Vittorio De Bortoli, who emigrated from the Italian Treviso to Australia. The winery became known beyond Australia only in the 1980 years with the Noble One Botrytis Semillon, produced in the family-owned winery Bibul in Riverina. Today, the De Bortoli family own wineries with around 820 hectares of vineyards in the Heathcote, Hunter Valley, King Valley, Riverina, Rutherglen and Yarra Valley.

The tasted wine, the Family Reserve Semillon 2016 by De Bortoli, I had discovered at Aldi as an special sale gourmet wine for Christmas and taken away. The Semillon variety, the backbone of Sauternes, … Read more ...

Matured by the Foehn – Jurançon


© La Cave de Gan Jurançon
© La Cave de Gan Jurançon

Around 1,500 km separate the foothills of the Alps south of Munich and Jurançon in France, but despite this distance, both have a climatic similarity: the Foehn, a dry warm wind from the mountains, always blowing from the south. In wine-growing areas north of the Alps, in the autumn, the grapes intended for the production of a sweet wine can dry and rosinate in the vineyard on the vine, naturally concentrating the sugars. A well-known example of a sweet wine that benefits from the Foehn is a Flétri from Valais.

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