Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Broad and honeyed, with lots of warm piecrust, orange zest, glazed apple, peach and almond cream notes. The finish lingers with orange and date accents, while a hint of citrus oil imparts good spine. Rather flattering today, but has the energy to develop with time. Best from 2017 through 2027.
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Wine Enthusiast
Produced from organically grown grapes, the wine is rich and structured. It comes from an estate that has never seen pesticides or artificial fertilizers (the previous owner was 104 years old when she died and never used them). It is a full of blackberry fruits, rich with tannins and firm with a dark core of dryness. Drink this wine from 2020.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Characterized by dried tropical fruit, candied apricot, citrus and honey, the sweet wines of Barsac are always balanced by a bright beam of acidity. While technically also part of the Sauternes region, Barsac’s sandy and limestone soils produce a lighter version in comparison. Its main grapes are the same: Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle.