Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Under the control of white wine wizard Denis Dubourdieu, this is one of the great wines of Barsac. It has intensity of sweetness, but just the right lightness, which gives it freshness as well as richness. This is a great wine in its early stages, and is certainly likely to age over many years. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
Masses of crushed grape, honey and hints of clove and nutmeg. Full-bodied, very sweet and very lively, with lots of acidity and spicy fruit. Long and flavorful, with loads of passion fruit flavor.
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Wine & Spirits
Scents of blood orange hint at the acidity that drives this wine; it moderates the proportions of the broad, rich flavor and finishes clean. The scent of pure, fresh honey lasts. For the cellar.
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.