If you want more from Wine Noob, then sign up-to this RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
For many of us we have not really delved into every single wine style, perhaps just the still wines, sparkling wines and Champagne. However, if you feel a bit adventurous this year and really want to impress your guests by serving fortified wines this Christmas, here are some tips:
The main styles of fortified wines are port wine, sherry wine and Maderia wine all of which are wines that have been distilled with a spirit such as brandy. What distinguishes these wines are their origins, character and grape variety. All three wine types range in style, from dry to sweet, the former great to accompany snacks such as nuts and the latter goes well with desserts or as an apperitif.
So it is quite easy, just pick any fortified wine you might wish to serve, find out what style it is eg dry, semi-dry, sweet and then serve at the relevant stage of your meal. If serving as an apperitif then the wine is usually chilled before serving and the most suitable wine varieties for the are the fortified white wines
Here are some great fortified wine picks that you might want to consider:
The other day I was just going through my cache of wine and was thinking about the next time I will get a chance to taste the delicious Bruno Paillard Brut Champagne again when I noticed on the back label there was a date printed on it.
Now since this is not a vintage Champagne I thought that this must be the date the wine wine bottled but investigating this a bit deeper from the Bruno Paillard website I learnt that this is actually the degorgement date!
What is degorgement?
Taken from the Bruno Paillard site, I learnt that it is: “When the bottle is lying in a vertical position – head first – the deposit is therefore concentrated against the cork,
just a few millimetres thick. It can now be removed – a process called disgorgement.”
For those who have been following the rose wine niche will know that early pink wines where just a joke, loaded with sugar and almost used as a summer alcopop. Now rose wine is in demand producers like Nicolas Feuillatte want to produce the best end product and that is high quality rose wine or rose Champagne.
Check out this video, it gives the basics on rose Champagne using Nicolas Feuillatte rose as an example covering things like production technique and general vintage information.
If you want to give this Champagne a go, then click on the following link to buy Nicolas Feuillatte rose Champagne – UK customers only!
