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Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $12.60 $15.00
An inviting nose of peaches, sliced pears and dried orange peel. Medium-bodied with delightful texture. Bright and...
JS
90
White
750ml
Bottle: $17.94
12 bottles: $17.58
Our Vouvray is stunning with its elegancy and freshness which carry through the ripe fruity palate, marrying with...
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $59.90 $63.19
The 2021 Fire By Night, formerly known as Broom Ridge, has a lovely, seductive bouquet with mirabelle, jasmine and...
12 FREE
VM
94
WS
93
White
750ml
Bottle: $59.90
6 bottles: $58.70
12 FREE
White
750ml
Bottle: $169.93
12 bottles: $166.53
Complex and super intense Palo Cortado, loaded with concentration. Salted caramel, toffee, walnut and some tangy...
12 FREE
WA
96
JS
96
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $16.20 $18.00
12 bottles: $14.25
Crisp passion fruit and lemon leaf with a whiff of white pepper on the nose. The same flavours make an immediate...
White
375ml
Bottle: $13.00
12 bottles: $12.35
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $13.58 $14.30
12 bottles: $11.40
Dry, easy drinking wine with notes of quince, pear and granny smith apples.
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $17.10 $18.00
12 bottles: $14.25
Brilliant clear yellow. Seductive nose with lovely fruit aromas (pear, pineapple) and delicate floral notes. Smooth...
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $34.84
Rated 95 -Year in, year out, this exceptional Chenin Blanc vineyard delivers the goods.... it produces a wine with...
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WNR
95
VM
91
Sale
White
1.5Ltr
Bottle: $25.81 $27.17
6 bottles: $16.68
The Basics This wine is meant to be enjoyed with a variety of foods, ranging from Asian to Mexican dishes. The Taste...
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $12.43 $13.08
The Basics This wine is meant to be enjoyed with a variety of foods, ranging from Asian to Mexican dishes. The Taste...
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $25.84 $28.80
100% Chenin Blanc. From 10-15-year-old, certified-organic vines on clay-limestone soils. Fermented to dryness (2...
Sale
White
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.41 $15.83
This is bright for a cream Sherry, with green tea and singed ginger notes out front, providing heft to the date,...
WS
91
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $64.00
An exceptionally old fino, perhaps the oldest on the market, at about 15 years, from a gentle, gracious family, who...
12 FREE
DC
96
WA
95
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.94 $15.83
Sea salt, Brazil nut and dried chamomile notes are racy and filigreed, with a stony edge on the finish. Drink now.
WS
90
White
750ml
Bottle: $69.95
6 bottles: $68.55
The NV El Tresillo Amontillado Fino is from the El Tresillo solera (hence the same name as the 1874 Amontillado). It...
12 FREE
WA
90
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $27.94 $31.19
Shows lovely focus and persistence, with a prominent thread of bitter almond that runs from start to finish, while...
WS
92
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $59.93 $64.79
The NV Villapanes Oloroso wears a dark amber-brown robe and has a very intense nose, showing some marmalade, dark...
12 FREE
WA
91

Baco Noir Chenin Blanc Mavrodaphne Sherry

Originating in France yet now grown in many parts of the New World, Chenin Blanc is one of the most versatile and highly regarded white wine grape varietals on earth. These green skinned grapes hold a relatively high acid content, and as such can be used for making still white wines of exceptional quality, as well as superb sparkling wines (such as the Crémant wines of the Loire Valley) and extremely aromatic dessert wines. Their natural transparency means that they are a fine grape for expressing their terroir in the bottle, and winemakers often experiment with this varietal to coax unusual and intense flavors from the grapes, such as allowing the development of noble rot on the fruit in order to make sweet and viscous wines of a unique character.

In the Archaea region, high in the Northern Peloponnese mountains, the predominant grape varietal grown is the prized Mavrodaphne. Meaning 'Black Laurel', the Mavrodaphne grapes have extremely dark skins, and ripen slowly under the Greek sunshine, helped by the mineral rich soils the vines thrive in. This grape varietal is mostly used to produce the opaque, inky fortified wine of the same name, which is popular all over Greece and elsewhere in the world. This fortified wine allows the grapes to really show off their complex and fascinating flavors, which range from a rich marzipan to flavors of bitter chocolate, sweet coffee, dried figs and prunes, as well as plenty of jammy fruit notes.

Mavrodaphne is produced in a traditional method which involves leaving the grape juice exposed to the sun in large vats, before having its fermentation halted by the addition of various distillates taken from previous successful vintages. This mixture contains plenty of residual sugar, which gives the end result its characteristic sticky sweetness, and also helps with the next fermentation process, which typically takes place in large underground cellars. The final product is a heady drink, absolutely bursting with unusual, rich and sweet flavors and carried in a dark and slightly viscous Port-like liquid.

Mavrodaphne grapes are also used for the production of still red wines, but are generally blended with varietals such as Agiorgitiko or imported grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Mavrodaphne grapes are excellent for mellowing more acidic varieties, and producing deliciously rounded wines, which have taken the international market by storm in recent decades.

Additional Information on Greek Wines


Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?

Sherry is made in a unique way using the solera system, which blends fractional shares of young wine from oak barrels with older, more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to 50 years or more, the date the solera was begun. If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers to the date the company was founded.

Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape, which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle" and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.

Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which means that distilled, neutral spirits are used to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it will have a longer shelf life than table wines.