Winemaker Notes
Yellow robe, with some gold highlights. The nose is very expressive with hints of lychee, grapefruit, orange peel, dried apricot, peppermint, and honey. In the mouth there is ample freshness however not too sweet. Honey, white peach, grapefruit tang envelope the senses. Unctuous and balanced acidity.
Drink as an aperitif, with blue cheese, foie gras or dessert based on fruit or strong chocolate.
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.
Recognized for its high elevation vineyards of Grenache and Syrah, Beaumes de Venise is one of the few villages promoted to Cotes du Rhone Villages status. The region also produces the famous Vin Doux Naturel, made exclusively from the best Muscat variety, Muscat blanc à Petits Grains. The enticing, floral aromas of these Muscat-based fortified wines make them ideal for early consumption and do not require aging.