La Vino Dolce

It’s been a while since I’ve gathered up a bunch of sweet wine news articles for you, so here goes:

• One of the most prestigious sweet wines in the world, Sauternes, has been in the news lately. If you’ve ever wondered what to pair with a Sauternes, there’s an answer waiting for you if you click the link.

• Speaking of Sauternes, its part of a small and elite group of wines from around the world made with grapes affected by botrytis cinerea, which sounds like some sort of nasty disease or digestive disorder. Well, it actually is a disease of sorts. More specifically, it’s a fungus that affects wine grapes in certain special places under certain special conditions. The fungus is often called noble rot, probably because it sounds a little less disgusting. Anyway, if you’d like to know more about it, check out this article which attempts to demystify the word botrytis.

• Decanter notes that the Spanish winemakers in Rioja have found another use for their noble grape, Tempranillo. They’ve decided to let a few grapes hang on the vine late into the season, causing them to become affected with, you guessed it, noble rot. In addition to Tempranillo, they’re using botrytised Graciano, Garnacha (a/k/a Grenache), Mazuelo and Viura to produced reasonably priced white and rosé dessert wines. Considering how good the region’s $14 bottles of Rioja are, I’m betting their similarly priced sweet wines will be fantastic. Read the rest of this entry »