Barolo for lunch #77
A couple of sweet wines for X-mas
Hi friends! Another really big drop in the temporary assortment this week, but unfortunately prices for some of the better ones are getting out of hand. Ridge Geyserville is amazing and E. Guigal Saint-Joseph Lieu Dit Rouge always blows me away. Altesino’s Brunello is still decently priced though – and very accessible already now – so that one I would recommend picking up a bottle or two. For the picks of the week I decided to go in a different direction though: sweet. Cheers! 🍷
Kracher Noble Reserve Trockenbeerenauslese – #92054 – 159:- (187ml)
Tiiiny tiny bottle of golden wine. This Austrian wine tastes of apricot, saffron and honey and manages to strike an absolute beautiful balance of sweet and fresh. Serve in tiny shot glasses, slightly chilled, with lussekatter. 55% Welschriesling, 40% Chardonnay and 5% Traminer.
Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal 20 Anos – #92286 – 399:-
Very different approach from the above. This wine is a blend of six vintages, all over 20 years old and the oldest one from 1911. During this period, the fortified wine has been stored in large oak vats, and the result is a deep and complex flavor of raisins, oranges and almonds. Drink with dark chocolate, when Christmas eve is coming to an end. 100% Moscatel.
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Nerd zone: Trockenbeerenauslese
The direct translation of Trockenbeerenauslese is roughly “dried grape selection”, and it’s refers to a German or Austrian wine where the grapes have dried from being attacked by Botrytis cinerea, or “noble rot”. The reason why it’s noble, is that unlike the other kinds of “regular” rot, this process doesn’t hurt the flavor. Quite the opposite actually.
Instead it dries out the water from the grape, leaving being something that looks similar to a raisin but is incredibly dense in flavor. Since this process is so unpredictable, the clusters or sometimes even the individual grapes needs to be handpicked at just the right time - which more often than not means that the vineyards are picked several times. The resulting wines are obviously very expensive, but also very very special.