At the Forum Vini, in November 2018 in Munich there were a lot of dry wines but also some sweet wines like port wine. I tasted two port wines, a Magalhães LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) 2013 of Quinta do Silval and a 10 Years Tawny Port by Vieira de Sousa.
Black Muscat: never heard of it – but maybe already eaten? Muscat Hamburg, as the grape is called in Great Britain, is used in many countries mainly as a table grape, because of its ability to survive long transport routes very well.
But there are also dry wines of Muscat Hamburg , such as in Eastern Europe or Württemberg. Dessert wines are also produced in Württemberg as well as in California, where exists more than 100 hectares of Black Muscat vines, almost exclusively owned by the Quady Winery. The winery of the Quady brothers specializes in dessert, aperitif and Muscat wines, as well as vermouth and port-like … Read more ...
Rust is known for his outbreak, his storks and the legendary Blaufränkisch Mariental 1986 by Ernst Triebaumer, who was the winner in three of the most important world wide red wine competitions and so significantly contributed making the Blaufränkisch internationally known.
In Rust, wine is cultivated on different soils. There are crystalline rock, sediments of shell limestone, clay, gravel and also loess. The wines around Rust flourish in an climate, which is protected by the Leithagebirge west from the westerly winds and is also significantly influenced by the water surfaces of the eastern Neusiedlersee. Despite this climate, some winters are cold enough to produce ice wine, though not … Read more ...
The Domaine Puig-Parahÿ is known for its Vin Doux Naturel (VDN). Nearly 50 vintages of Vin Doux Naturel, which are stored in Passa in the cellars of the Roussillon-based winery, are marketed. Many of these VDN date back to the last century. For Parker’s Wine Advocat, David Schildknecht had tasted just under a dozen of these VDN Rancios by Puig-Parahÿ from vintage vintages from 1875 to 1998 in 2009. They have been rated with 90 to 98 points, the majority with more than 95 points, on average with almost 94 points.
Ripened VDN are in high demand, especially those of Puig-Parahÿ, which is reflected in the price. … Read more ...
In the autumn, there are many wine events – selection is necesssary. Sweet wines are rarely to be found on tasting lists – if there is one -, mostly the winemakers have only dry wines with them. I wanted to taste dry Silvaner at the presentation of wine from Franconia, which was announced with the brand Silvaner Heimat seit 1659 (Home of Silvaner since 1659) created this year.
Home of the Silvaner is not so wrong, because about 1,500 hectares, corresponding to 1/4 of the Franconian vineyards are planted with Silvaner. However, Rheinhessen has almost half more Silvaner in terms of area and the original home of the grape … Read more ...
North and south of the Danube lies the Austrian winegrowing area Wagram. In the larger northern part of the wine thrives mainly on loess and sandy gravel soils. As in all of Austria, the Gruner Veltliner with a cultivated area of 1,330 hectares is also here the number one. Yet there is no other austrian winegrowing area in which more of the almost similarly named variety Roter Veltliner is cultivated than in Wagram – 82 hectares. With Gruner Veltliner, the autochthonous grape variety Roter Veltliner has nothing to do, it is known rather as crossing partner of some other Austrian autochthonous varieties such as Neuburger, Rotgipfler or Zierfandler… Read more ...
Chardonnay is a very versatile variety, which is reflected in dry wines in a variety of wine styles. Usually dry wines are produced with this variety, but there are also sweet and noble sweet Chardonnay variants, especially in Germany and Austria. Two characteristics make Chardonnay a very well suited grape variety for sweet wines. On the one hand, the variety definitely has enough acidity to balance residual sugar, on the other hand, the berries’ shells are thin enough to facilitate botrytis infestation, thus enabling the production of noble sweet wines.
We tasted a Chardonnay Auslese 2001 of the Wittmann Winery. The Wittmann family is involved in viticulture since 1663. … Read more ...
There are four different grades of sweetness according to German and EU wine law: dry, semi-dry, semisweet and sweet, in addition, one also finds the term feinherb. A term probably only used in Germany, which should convey to the consumer that the wine has a fine, slightly herb note, even though or just because it is not dry.
In various wine lexica it can be read that a feinherb wine, such as a semi-dry one, has a residual sugar content of 9 to 18 g / l, whereby the sugar may not be more than 10 g / l above the acidity. This is true for … Read more ...
Szamorodni, a word of the Polish language means “as grown”, which means in this case, that for these wines, the grapes are harvested as they are currently on the vine, so not only the berries infested by noble rot are selected, as it is the case with the harvest for the Tokaji aszú. Whether the so-harvested bunch of grapes produce the dry Szaomordni száraz or the sweet Szamorodni édes depends largely on the percentage of grapes infested by Botrytis (noble rot), because those have a higher sugar content than ripe grapes. The main part of the harvested grapes
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 autumn to spring, as well as warm summers and mild winters.
Founded in 1985, the Miquel Gelabert winery is based in Manacor and manages 9 hectares in the eastern part … Read more ...