The Moscatello di Taggia has been a welcome guest at the English and Flemish royal courts as well as at least some papal tables since the 14th century. For a long time, this wine was considered a symbol of Ligurian viticulture, until in the 19th century the phylloxera decimated the existence of this variety to the point of insignificance and thus the grape variety was forgotten. It was only in 2003 that around 20 plants of this grape variety were rediscovered as part of an oenological research project by the University of Turin in the municipality of Ceriana (province of Imperia).
The winemaker Eros Mammoloti had already initiated this search … Read more ...
“É un regalo” said Gabriele, when I asked him about the price of the bottle Moscato di Scanzo. In his restaurant Sali e Tabacchi in Maggiana on Lake Como we had celebrated the wedding of a friendly couple this weekend and he had noticed that I had searched in vain for this wine in the surrounding wine shops. Overnight, he organized a Moscato di Scanzo from a winemaker friend. It was from the neighboring community of Scanzorosciate and thus a Vino da Tavola and not the Scanzo from the DOCG, but still a wine from the grape Moscato di Scanzo and dolce – a circumstance that did not impair his … Read more ...
“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”.
… and all priced below 10 €. We tasted three different muscat wines, two sweet wines: a gold muscatel from the winery Erste + Neue from South Tyrol and a Moscato from Gallo from California, plus a feinherb muscatel from the winery Kesselring from the Palatinate.
All are muscat wines, but of at least two different varieties: Gold Muskateller and Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, provided that the feinherb wine from Palatinate has been made from yellow muscatel.
For quick readers ahead: None of the wines could be one of our favorites – more in the conclusion. All wines were tasted blindly.
Muskateller feinherb Bio 2014, Winery Kesselring
light pale … Read more ...
Greece is one of the oldest wine countries and better known for its dry wines and its indigenous grape varieties, but less for its sweet wines, except perhaps for the sweet Samos wines and the Vinsanto of Santorini.
More than 60 suppliers from Greece attended the fair Prowein 2015, including Achaia Clauss from Patras, a well-known wine producer in Greece. Three sweet wines of this manufacturer I have tasted at the fair Prowein. One of them, rather simple and uncomplicated, scores with its fruitiness and its price (see Tasted Wines). The second one is more complex, showing a good balance at a very attractive price. The third, a long matured … Read more ...
Wine from “down under” was the dominant theme at the “Summer School 2014” of the Wine Academy in Rust. This included a tasting of sweet, alcohol-fortified wines from the Rutherglen wine region in northeast Victoria.
Rutherglen Muscat and Rutherglen Topaque are considered exceptional wines. However, this is less due to the grape varieties, but more to the type of production and the climatic conditions under which they are created. As the name suggests, Rutherglen Muscat is made from grapes of the Muscat variety, in this case from a particularly dark version of Muscat blanc à petit grains called Muscat Brown, Rutherglen Topaque from Muscadelle. Both grape … Read more ...