Fortified wines, Cave de L’Abbé Rous Banyuls Rimage and Thasos Moscatel De Setubal

 Two fortified wines from France and Portugal. The first wine is the  La Cave de l'Abbé Rous Cornet & Cie Banyuls Rimage 2017. Banyuls is an AOC that produces fortified or dessert wines in Rousillion in France. The production process is similar to that of port wine with alcohol added to stop the fermentation. The wine is then matured in oak barreles of glass containers which allows for some oxidisation. Rimage is a catalan word which means vintage so this is a vintage wine.  La Cave de l'Abbé Rous is a producer of wine in Rousillion and incorporates 750 smaller producers. It is hard to find information as usual about Banyuls wines as most of the information is in French and is not easy to find but I read that the grape used should be Grenache.

In the taste I get plum. red cherry and chocolate with sweetness. A very good fortified wine that goes down too easy. 

The next wine is the Thasos Moscatel De Setubal 2010. This is a fortified wine from Portugal and also here the wine is stopped fermenting by adding alcohol. The grape used is Muscat and then it is stored in oak barrels. This wine is produced by the Enoport group in Portugal.

The taste is of oranges and honey. For me it is lacking some acidity to lift it up A nice wine but nothing that I remember.

 

La Grotta Di Vegneron

La Grotta Di Vegneron is a producer in the fantastic Valle D'Aosta in north western corner of Italy on the border to France. It is the smallest wine growing region in Italy and this region has many interesting grapes. Due to its small size, wine from Valle D'Aosta is very hard to find as the production is so limited. And don't forget the beautiful nature of Valle D'Aosta also.

 

But going back to La Grotta Di Vegneron I have tried two of their wines. A red and a white wine. First up is a dry wine from 2010 called Attente. It is made of Muscat grapes from the village of Chambave. Normally Muscat grapes are used for sweet wines so this dry aged white wine is quite interesting. This wine is aged for 40 months in steel tanks which is a long time for a dry white wine. The taste is dry but the smell confuses my mind as I expect a sweet wine. taste of apricots, dried fruits but with a clear dryness. Not for everyone but I find it good and interesting but I find it hard to categorize.

Next up is the red wine Esprit Follet made from the ancient grape Fumin from Valle D'Aosta. In the taste I get complex red fruits, black currants, viols, dark chocolate and some spices. A very good wine. Love it and Fumin have become one of my favourite grapes.