From Sicily to Germany

Sicily, one of the best places to visit in Europe.

Sicily also has many interesting wines and local grapes. One grape is the fiano grape which is grown in Sicily and in the Campania region of southern Italy. The wine Delicio from producer Canicatti is from 2009 and is made by the Fiano grape. It is a strong wine and very interesting. Much try this grape more in the future.

Going up further north in Italy we come to Lombardy and the village of Gavi. The producer Ricossa Antica Casa makes a wine just called Gavi. It is made from cortese grapes grown on the hills of Gavi. The vintage is 2012. The strong taste is of grapefruit and I would love to have this wine together with fish.

The last wine is the wine with the curious shape of bottles, namely a wine from Franken. I have tried sweet wines from Juliusspital and they have been excellent and this time it is a dry wine (trocken). It is a 2012 Silvaner kabinett trocken. Very dry and with an alcohol level of 14,5%. Very strong and a taste of pears and green apples but with a lot of acids.  Not your normal easy drinking wine. An excellent wine.

Dr Loosen against Juliusspital

Two sweet German wines. Both made from Riesling grapes but from different regions. The 2009 Riesling Auslese Juliusspital if from Würzburger Stein. It has a very delicate flavour. The sweetness of this wine is very light to the taste and it feels very fresh. Only 7.5% alcohol makes it very easy to drink. Despite the bottle being 500 ml it was consumed very quickly. As usual with the Franken wines the bottle is a Bocksbeutel. Not the normal wine bottle. The Dr. Loosen Riesling Beerenauslese is from Mosel and is 7.0%. This is the first time I have seen such a small winebottle, only 187 ml. This rich dessert wine is made from grapes afflicted with botrytis (noble rot). It has a light colour not as amber as they usually are. The smells is of nectarines. Has a taste of honey and is a bit intense. I think with a couple of more storage this will become even better. So which one is the best? I would prefer the Juliusspital for warm summer evenings while Dr. Loosen for autumn and spring.