Sweet wines: an introduction to these unfashionable gems
Sadly sweet wines have had bad PR over recent decades, and it’s now seen as a social faux pas in many circles to admit to liking your wine in anything other than a bone dry style. So sweet wines get a raw deal, relegated to the end of meals accompanying dessert, or forgotten altogether. But they’re worth discovering in their own right, and represent some of the wine world’s most interesting, exciting and down-right tasty gems. And they are not just for maiden aunts or portly academics, either. Here’s my personal guide to some of the sweet wines that are worth checking out.
Let’s begin with Port, possibly the world’s most famous sweet wine. Hailing from the spectacular Douro valley in Portugal, it’s made by stopping the fermentation of red wine part way through by the addition of brandy, thus retaining some natural sweetness from the grapes. This spirit addition also raises the alcohol to around 20%, which helps preserve the wine against microbial contamination (hence the term ‘fortified’).
There are a confusing number of Port styles and categories. It’s probably best to avoid Ruby and Vintage Character, the cheapest styles. A step up the quality ladder is Late Bottled Vintage (LBV): of these, I’d recommend looking for wines labelled ‘traditional’ or ‘crusted’ LBVs, because these wines often give the character of true Vintage Port at a fraction of the price. At the top of the tree is Vintage Port, the top wines from particularly good vintages bottled after just a couple of years in cask. These need long ageing (although some people quite like them young) and will throw a thick deposit in the bottle, so need decanting. As a slightly cheaper alternative, Single Quinta Ports are wines from individual estates that are made in years that haven’t been declared as vintage. They can often be just as good, and also require decanting. Leading producers include Taylor, Fonseca, Niepoort, Warre, Dow, Graham, Noval and Churchill.
In a different style, Tawny ports are those that have been aged for a long time in wood. With age they attain a mellow nutty, spicy character: particularly worth seeking out are the 10 year old and 20 year old tawnies, and also the Colheitas (vintage dated Tawny wines that are particularly popular in Portugal). As a general rule, the longer they spend in wood, the lighter in colour they become and the more mellow and complex the resulting wine. Port is the classic after dinner drink, when it typically comes out with the cheese course, but it’s also something that can be drunk alone any time.
Staying in the Iberian peninsula but switching countries to Spain, Sherry is another fortified wine style that’s worth getting to know. Most top sherries are dry, but there are a few sweet styles worth investigating. Sherries labelled Pedro Ximenez, made from air-dried grapes, are extremely sweet and viscous with flavours of liquidized raisins. These remarkable, unctuous wines are incredible, but won’t be to everyone’s taste. They work well poured over ice cream. Hidalgo, Valdespino and Gonzalez Byas make really good examples. Other seriously tasty sweet sherries include Gonzalez Byas’ Matusalem and Lustau’s Old East India. The great thing about sherry is that it is undervalued, and you usually get a lot more than you pay for.
If you like these sweet sherry styles, then you’ll probably also like the famous Rutherglen Muscats from Australia. These are ultra-sweet, complex raisiny wines that take on a deep brown colour from extended ageing in casks. They’re lovely, but because they are so rich and intense you’d probably feel as sick as a pig if you drank a whole bottle. Perfect with rich fruit cake.
If you want something sweet but a bit lighter, perhaps suitable for matching with fruity desserts, then sweet muscats from the south of France might be the answer. These are usually fresh, grapey, aromatic wines with a lovely freshness that counteracts the sweetness well. They’re very affordable, too. Muscat de Baumes de Venise is the most famous, but Muscat de Frontignan, Muscat de Rivesaltes and Muscat de St Jean de Minervois are also good.
Botrytis is the key to the success of many of the world’s most famous sweet wines. Also known as ‘noble rot’, Botrytis cinerea is a fungus that under the right conditions attacks already-ripe grapes, shrivelling them, concentrating the sweetness and acidity. The grapes end up looking disgusting but they make profound sweet white wines, of which Sauternes is the most famous example. The resulting wines are sweet and quite viscous, with complex apricot, honey and spice flavours and good balancing acidity. If you can’t stretch to good Sauternes, then the best wines of Saussignac and Monbazillac can offer the same sorts of flavours. I find these wines show best on their own: most desserts overwhelm the subtleties that you are paying all your money for.
Also relying on botrytis for its complexity but made in a different way is Hungary’s famous sweet wine, Tokaji. The nobly rotted grapes are made into a paste that is then added to the base wine, adding sweetness and flavour. Wines from Tokaji aren’t cheap, but they are unique with complex honey, marmalade and raisiny flavours, often with a hint of oxidation.
This is just a brief introduction to the variety of sweet wine styles. There are many other worthy wines that have not been mentioned here, including the great German noble-rotted Riesling Trockenbeerenauslesen, sweet Loire Chenin Blancs, and the rare Eisweins. My advice? Buy yourself something sweet and give your tastebuds something they’ve always wanted.
Source: http://www.wineanorak.com/sweet_wine.htm
Best restaurant in Clark Philippines offers award winning restaurant wine list, top rated fine dining resto bar outside Manila
Where to eat in Clark Pampanga, good restaurants where children and kids can go? Listings of the finest and most frequently visited restaurants in Pampanga, Angeles City, Subic and Clark Freeport show that although Yats Restaurant is a world class fine dining resto bar, this top rated restaurant located inside Mimosa Golf Estate near the golf course and casino of Clark is a popular place to eat and dine out for families with kids. This popular restaurant in Clark is very child friendly.
Manila residents and tourists look for a good restaurant in Clark to wine and dine, relax and unwind after a game of golf or a long day of work or business in Pampanga. Top rated and most frequently visited restaurant in Clark is Yats Restaurant and Wine Lounge. Even families with children choose to eat at this restaurant because of its child friendly facilities, good service and excellent food.
Best restaurant in Clark Philippines offers award winning restaurant wine list, top rated fine dining resto bar outside Manila, one in 650 restaurants in the world to win the Wine Spectator’s Best of Awards of Excellence for its fabulous restaurant wine list, the only restaurant in the Philippines to be given this award.
Each year, world leading wine and dining magazine called Wine Spectator gives out a special award to restaurants offering the best wine selections. The Best of Awards of Excellence is given out to less than 700 of the best restaurants worldwide. Here in the Philippines, Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar is the only one to receive this prestigious international award. Restaurant wine lists are judged not for the number of impressive bad names on the wine list but more on how interesting the wine selection is for the dining guests. Breadth of selection covering all the major wine producing regions of the world is an important aspect of a restaurant wine list and so is the depth of vintages offered. Yats Restaurant has long been recognized internationally as one of the best places to wine and dine for wine lovers and those who are used to world class gourmet dining. Winning this international restaurant award places the Philippines on the map of international travelers who are accustomed to fine dining at a world-class level. The famous restaurant wine list of this top rated restaurant in Clark Pampanga serves as an icon in the Philippines for international wine lovers coming over to visit the Philippines on business or leisure.
For comments, inquiries and reservations click on Click here for inquiry and reservations
Restaurant@Yats-International.com
(045) 599-5600
0922-870-5178
0917-520-4401
Ask for Pedro and Rechel
Getting to this fine dining restaurant of Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Pampanga Philippines
How to get to this fine-dining restaurant in Clark Pampanga? Once you get to Clark Freeport, go straight until you hit Mimosa. After you enter Mimosa, stay on the left on Mimosa Drive, go past the Holiday Inn and Yats Restaurant (green top, independent 1-storey structure) is on your left. Just past the Yats Restaurant is the London Pub.
Yats Restaurant & Wine Bar
Mimosa Drive past Holiday Inn, Mimosa Leisure Estate,
Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga, Philippines 2023
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 Rea or Chay
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