All about sweet wines

Multi-layered – Martha’s Colheita Port

18. December 201917. December 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Many wine drinkers know Vintage Port, whereas Colheita is largely unknown, and only few know which port wine style it is. Its brownish color identifies it as a Tawny type port and since the Portuguese word Colheita means harvest, a Colheita Port is a Tawny that comes from the grapes of a single vintage. A Vintage Tawny, so to speak, just like the Ruby typ Vintage port from a single vintage. But while the dark to black-red port wines of the Ruby type are aged in large barrels with little contact with atmospheric oxygen, the mostly amber to mahogany-colored

Rueda sparkling – Verdejo frizzante

4. December 20193. December 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Spain is rich in sweet wines, including many sparkling wines. Some of the sweet, less sparkling frizzante are made similar to the Moscato d’Asti. Among them are not only Frizzante from Moscatel, but also from the Canary Listán blanco and also Sauvignon blanc or Verdejo in Rueda.

Verdejo, whose name derives from its almost blue-green flowering, is one of the main Rueda grape varieties – more than half of Verdejo’s 18,000 hectares of Spain are found there. Founded in Valladolid in 1970, Grupo Yllera, which manages 100 hectares of its own vineyards and buys grapes from other 730 hectares, controlled by Yllera, in the wine … Read more ...

Vi de Glass – Catalan Icewine

24. November 201922. November 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

When someone talks about icewine, you think of ice-cold nights when the grapes freeze on the vines, which are harvested at night or early in the morning. From this, the must is pressed, which not only has high sugar but also a lot of fruit, extract and acidity and which after itsfermenation will be a icewine.

But what to do if such cold nights are missing, such as in the Spanish wine-growing area of Penedès, where even in the coldest January nights, the thermometer falls below the zero degree limit only very rarely?

The winery Gramona also asked this question. Located in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia since 1850, the … Read more ...

Indice 5 – Alsatian Gewurztraminer Clos Windsbuhl

4. January 20206. November 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Every year thousands of tourists conquer the picturesque villages of Alsace, such as Eguisheim, Turckheim or Colmar. But while the number of guests has increased over 15% in the last ten years, it has probably not improved the reputation and popularity of Alsatian wines abroad. For the second time in a row, Alsace’s wine exports were 10% below the long-term average in 2017, resulting in a reorientation of the Alsatian wine marketing by the CIVA (Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d’Alsace) in 2018.

Complex late harvest from the Enkircher Ellergrub

28. October 201920. October 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

A few minutes away from the Hotel Bellevue lies the winery Weiser-Künstler in Traben-Trarbach. The Art Nouveau hotel recalls the wealth of the city at the time of the very profitable trade in Riesling wines around 1900, when the Mosel town, after Bordeaux, was the second largest wine trading town. So it is not surprising that many of the vines there have a considerable age and also, not so few of them are growing on their own roots, so are not grafted.

Expressive Auslese of the “Roter Hang”

11. October 20197. October 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Rothenberg, Hipping, Pettenthal and Ölberg are vineyards lying at the red slope near the Rhine-Hessian Nierstein. In all these vine locations the Bodenheim based winery Kühling-Gillot owns vineyards. The winery which operates since the 19th century in the winegrowing business, besides the two main grape varieties Riesling and Pinot Noir has planted on its 11 hectares of vineyards Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Scheurebe, Gewürztraminer and to a smaller amount Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.

Prošek – Sweet wine of Dalmatia

27. September 201921. September 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

The sweet wine Prošek, pronounced Proschek, is rare in Germany under this name, because Croatia has forgotten to protect this product name with its joining of the EU. Although not to be confused with Prosecco, the name Prošek can only be used in Croatia because of its similarity to Prosecco.

Hofgut Falkenstein – Gripping Late Harvest from the Saar

2. September 201929. August 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

If you look on the Internet for ways to buy wines from Hofgut Falkenstein, you will find only a few suppliers. Some of them even point out that they receive only small quantities and a delivery is therefore reserved for regular customers. The wines from Hofgut Falkenstein are not only very popular in Germany, you could say, there is a real hype and the vintages are often sold out very quickly.

Piamater – Andalusian Vino Naturalmente Dulce

23. January 202115. August 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

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.

Classic Kabinetts of great Moselle vineyard locations

4. August 201931. July 2019 by Karl-Heinz Datum

M°vin stands for wine from the Mosel, actually rather for fruit sweet Cabinet wines. Only these are offered by M°vin, which goes back to an initiative of the native Moselles Roman Bastgen and Felix Schon. During their studies in Cologne the two made the experience that the Cabinet wines of their home were very well received with their Cologne friends and acquaintances, even with those who wanted to drink only very dry wines.

So they came up with the idea to market these wines under the label M°vin and thus make these typical Mosel wines better known. For this idea, they have won some young winemakers from the … Read more ...

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