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.

 

Periquita Reserva 2018

Periquita Reserva 2018 is a red wine from Portugal. The producer is Jose Maria Da Fonseca. The designation is Vinho Regional Peninsula De Setubal. The grapes used are 52% Castelao, 26% Touriga nacional and 22% Touriga Francesa and the wine has been aged for eight months in French oak barrels. In the taste I get plums, chocolate oak and some sour cherries. it is nice but I hink that the oak barrels have been used too much and dominates too much.

Blandy's Verdelho and Malmsey ten years old

One type of wine that is many times overlooked are Madiera wine. Once you get by the cheaper cooking wines you will find a lot of very good Madeira wine. It is made in different styles from dry to sweet. A lof of the flavour of Madeira wine comes from the oxidizing process that all Madeira wines undergo. Because of this process it is one of the wines that can survive for several hundred of years, this is especially true for the high quality wines.

Blandy's is a one of the few producers of Madeira wine. This time I have tried two of their wines. One Verdelho 10 years old and the Malmsey 10 years old. Verdelho is a grape grown on Maideria that produce a version of Madeira that is between dry and sweet called medium dry. In the taste I get caramel, raisin, walnut and some citrus. A very good aperitif wine. This is one Madeira that I would go for on a warm summer day.

Next up is the ten year old Malmsey wine. This grape gives the sweetest Madeira wines of them all. In the taste I get a lot of rich sweetnes with burnt sugar, raisin, nuts and honey. Quite a complex taste and a very good dessert wine or even meditation wine.

Three white wines from Germany, Portugal and Italy

 The first white wine is the wine Alvarinho Contacto from producer Anselmo Mendes i Portugal. It is a Vinho Verde from the subregion Moncao and Melgaco. It is made from the grape Alvarinho which is grown in the north of Portugal. The vintage is 2020 and the ABV 12,5%. I get a lot of fruit in this wine. Pear, green apple and some tropical fruit with some minerality, honey and lime. A good wine but lacks some acidity to take it to another level.

The white wine from Germany is the Grauburgunder Gutswein from producer Wagner Stempel in the region of Rheinhessen. The vintage is 2019 and the ABV 12%. The grape is Grauburgunder which is also known as Pinot Grigio or Pinot Gris. This wine has a lovely fresh taste of apple, minerals and citrus. A very good expression of the grape Grauburgunder.

The last wine is from Italy. It is the Bonea from producer Masseria Frattasi in Campania. The grape is Falanghina and the DOP is Taburno Sannino. The vintage is 2018 and the ABV 12,5%. In the taste melon, honey and papaya and everything is very nicely integrated. Good.

Broadbent 10 year Verdelho and Blandy's 15 year sercial, Madeira wine

Broadbent is a bottler of for example Madeira wine. I have tasted their 10 year old Verdelho. Here the Verdelho is a grape that produces semi sweet Madeira wine going over to almost a bit dry style. In the taste I get notes of caramel, orange and some walnut in a drier style. Quite a delicate and not in your face as some other Madiera wines can be. A good meditation wine.

The Blandy's 15 year old Sercial is made with the grape Sercial with makes this Madeira wine to be quite dry. In the taste I get walnut, burnt almond, oak and it is quite dry. Perfect as an aperitivo or an after dinner drink.

Leacock's Medium Rich Bual aged 15 years

Leacock's Medium Rich Bual aged 15 years is a madeira wine from the Portugese island of Madeira far out in the Atlantic.

Leacock's is part of the Madeira wine company, this company also includes Blandy's and Cossart Gordon and is run by the family of Blandy's. The Leacock's 15 year old Bual is not for sale at the moment as I bought it several years ago and it has been replaced by a Tinta Negra 15 year old medium rich in the wines from the company.  

Bual is one of the noble grapes that is grown on the island of Maderia. It is used to make medium rich sweet maderia wine. Only Malmsey maderia wines are sweeter. 

The wine has a high ABV of 19%. In the nose I get a smell of nuts. The taste is of raisin, some tobacco, caramel with some burnt fudge. Quite a long aftertaste. This is one wine that slowly grows on you the longer you keep sipping on it. 

White wine from Portugal and France

I usually stay with wines from Italy with occasional forays into Germany and France. This time I have a wine from Portugal. It is a white wine made from the grape Verdelho, this grape is often used for Madeira wine.  The producer is Herdade Do Esporao and the vintage is 2014. this wine is simply called V. In the taste I get apples and acidity with an almost buttery feel. A nice wine.

Next wine is a French white wine from Provence. It is by producer Paul Jaboulet Aine and it is called Parallele 45 Cotes Du Rhone Black 2014. here I get flowers on the nose. The taste is flowers and some fruits with a light tinge of grapefruit in the taste. A decent wine.

Been a time

It has been a long time now since I had port wine. Almost 28 months and that is too long time so in time for Easter I opened a bottle of Churchill's late bottled vintage from 2001, which I had stored for seven years. I was suppose to have drunk it a couple of years ago but that never happened but finally it was time.

The Churchill's LBV had a very nice nose. Smelled very nice. The taste was even better with a taste of cherries and a hint of figs or plums. Nice aftertaste. From the bottle I tasted in 2006 this had become slightly more complex with the extra years in storage.

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/