Wine Fictions

 At the recent wine fair of the Vignerons Independants at the scenic Altona Cruise Center I have came across a new kind of wine that I have never heard of before: Ratafia . .  Produced in the Champagne region by adding neutral tasting brandy to not fermented must it is a different approach on the creation of sweet wines, differing from the classic Port or the late harvest methods. This one, produced by Michel Gonet in 1996, is made exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes following an extraordinary year.    What has impressed me the most in this wine was how the dominant raisin flavours revealed themselves tremendously fresh and vigorous, with pristine acidity that grants it a long and parfumed ending. I always find it interesting to see which wines stand out after a long and more than interesting wine fair, filled with great wine projects from all over France.  Even though I was positively impressed with the Champagnes from the Gonet family and with the cativating pe...

 How important is the history of a wine? Even though I always assume the challenge of trying to be impartial in my personal evaluation of a wine, I also have to confess that I barely achieve such goal as I tend to let myself seduce by all kinds of extra information which may influence my tasting. I am just too sensitive to the worlds you can build around a particular world which is a bottle of wine. Going directly to the wine in question, the fact that it was a 1932 harvest has directly awoken in me an almost uncontrollable world of expectations. Tasted at a recent event of Wines of Roussillon in Hamburg it came as the biggest highlight of a very eventful evening.  Composed of Grenache Gris and Grenache Blanc it has revealed nice dried apricots, dates and some bitter almonds coated by an acidity which imposed a tremendous freshness to a wine which is over 90 years old.  In a way, it presented itself fresher than a 2002 tasted right before. Only having been bottled in 2022...