Les Murets d'Esprades Muscat de Rivesaltes 2010

For midsummer I was looking for a wine to accompany strawberries. For the first time inb my life I was thinking of doing strawberries in a jelly, so a strong sweet wine was needed with a strong taste. I choose to go for a fortified wine and one that I thought would fit were Les Murets d'Esprades Muscat de Rivesaltes. A vin doux naturel is made in southern france made from Muscat or Grenache grapes. They are especially commom in Languedoc-Roussillon. The fermentation is stopped by adding grape spirit which leaves the fortified wine very sweet. The taste of the wine is of fruits and pineapple. And it is very sweet. The aftertaste lingers for a long time and is very sharp. Works very well with strawberries but as a standalone wine it is to strong. And how did it work as a jelly? Fairly well. Had to add some water to reduce the taste as the jelly otherwise became to strong.

Otello Rose

For midsummer I had the chance to taste an Italian spumante called Otello Rose thanks to a friend of mine. Spumante is an Italian sparkling wine which can be dry, semi sweet or very sweet. We all thought this one would be half sweet and would make a good aperitiff wine for our midsummer dinner. But on the first taste there were no sweet taste at all. It tasted very dry and looking at the back label it said extra dry. I found it smelled like rasperries. The taste was very strong, rasperry like but with a strong tqaste like a fortified wine like sherry. Strange but good. It is always nice to be pleasently suprised by wines.

Swedish Hill, Viking White

And now for something completely different. Wine from Swedish Hill in the state of New York. I drank it two years ago and saved the bottle beacuse I liked the name. Viking White from Swedish Hill. My impression of this wine was that it was nothing special. Just a standard table wine that left no impression except the name.

Madeira Malmsey ten years old

The fortified wines from Madeira are one of the most interesting wines in the world. Due to the taste and the history of Madeira. Not many wines can be stored for hundreds of years. Unfortunately good Madeira are hard to get in Sweden. The few Madeiras at Systembolaget are not that interesting with a few exceptions. Many of them are just for cooking good sauces and not for drinking. One of the few good ones are a ten year old Madiera from the producer Cossart Gordon made by Malmsey grapes or malvasia grapes as they are also called. This bottle I decided to open when I had a chocolate tasting with several good dark chocolates from the producer Maglio and an extra milkchocolate from the producer Venchi. The colour of the Madeira wine was very dark amber. I have never seen a wine so dark amber. Woyuld be interesting to see the colour of an even older madeira wine. The taste was sweet, some nuts and dried fruits. Excellent. And of the all chocolates tried it worked so very well together with the cioccolato al latte extra. It is these occasions there one plus one is more than two. The Madeira worked good together with the other dark choclates. Next time I have a Venchi milk chocolate I better bring out the Madeira. For those interested in Madiera check out http://madaboutmadeira.org/