There are two major styles of Port. The first is Ruby (a category including Vintage, Single Quinta, LBV, Crusted, Vintage Character and Ruby) – wines aged for a relatively short…
Sweet wine season, 11: Turkey Flat Pedro Ximenez
I haven’t finished my sweet wine season yet. Not by any measure. Here’s number 11, and we’re off to Australia’s Barossa Valley for a bit of a rarity: an Australian…
Sweet wine season, 10: Royal Tokaji’s mythical Essencia
A mythical wine. So sweet it could hardly ferment at all, made from the free run juice from selected botrytized aszu berries. Drunk from a spoon, too. The Royal Tokaji…
Sweet wine season, 9: Hidalgo Triana, an amazing PX sherry
This is amazing stuff. Totally mind-blowing. Very, very sweet and concentrated, but really complex, too. Hidalgo Pedro Ximenez Triana VORS 30 Years Old Sherry Amazing stuff: rich and intense with…
Sweet wine season, 8: Tamar Ridge Kayena Botrytis Riesling
Having a lot of fun with sweet wines, still. Here’s another cracker from Tasmania. So pure. Tamar Ridge Kayena Vineyard Botrytis Riesling 2007 Tasmania 9% alcohol. Highly aromatic with notes…
Sweet wine season, 7: Chapoutier Hermitage Vin de Paille 1995
This is quite serious. It’s a sweet white wine made from the Marsanne variety, picked ripe, sorted and then dried on straw mats for two months. The must typically has…
Sweet wine season, 6: a stunning South African
I’m enjoying this sweet wine season. Most of all, I’m impressed by just how good many sweet wines are. This one, a botrytised Riesling from South Africa, blew me away….
Sweet wine season, 5: Riverby Estate Noble Riesling, New Zealand
Until recently a peculiar piece of legislation prevented New Zealand from exporting their sweet wines to the EU. Fortunately, this has changed, and now we can get to know the…
Sweet wine season, 4: Pedro Ximenez, an extreme style
This is about as extreme as sweet wine gets. Very ripe grapes dried in the sun, then fortified and aged for a long time in old barrels in a solera…