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750ml
Bottle:
$33.85
12 bottles:
$33.17
100% Cabernet Franc from the Ampeleia di Sopra parcels at 450-600 meters above sea level. Vines were planted between...
750ml
Bottle:
$22.40
A seductively floral, fruity and vibrant nose with a good lift of freshness and fruit. Crushed stones, blueberries,...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.90
12 bottles:
$17.54
Blue fruit and floral lift on the nose. Juniper and blueberry tart, with a floral, peppery, and delightfully smooth,...
750ml
Bottle:
$15.93
$16.76
12 bottles:
$15.92
Sleek and elegant, this Barbera boasts rose, cherry, raspberry and iron flavors. Linear and bracing, with fine...
750ml
Bottle:
$12.00
12 bottles:
$11.40
Black fruit, dark plums, tobacco leaves, violets and allspice on the nose. Bubblegum, too. Medium-bodied with sleek...
750ml
Bottle:
$21.90
$23.20
Against all odds, the 2020 Cabernet Franc, from a warm and dry year, feels fresher and more harmonious than the two...
750ml
Bottle:
$94.94
$109.94
The 2019 Gran Enemigo Agrelo Single Vineyard shows the completeness of the vintage, a year with good yields and a...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.93
Plum and cherry aromas are ripe and rich with intense fruitiness. Sleek attack, quite concentrated and assertive, but...
750ml
Bottle:
$30.90
12 bottles:
$30.28
An outstanding example of Barbera from old vines, some dating back to 1949. Strained, deeply rooted plants produce...
750ml
Bottle:
$28.00
12 bottles:
$27.44
Ruby-red color with purple hues. A suitably intense bouquet of red berries and syrupy fruit with traces of tobacco...
750ml
Bottle:
$23.94
A youthful nose of sweet strawberry and damson. The supple and vibrant palate shows succulent black fruits and herbs....
750ml
Bottle:
$67.82
Another beautiful wine in this lineup is the 2018 Cabernet Franc, which is 100% varietal and spent 22 months in 80%...
750ml
Bottle:
$19.25
$22.00
100% Cabernet Franc. Les Barnabés stands apart from Raffault's other main sites, Les Picasses and Les Peuilles,...
750ml
Bottle:
$54.90
The 2008 Chinon Les Picasses is an authentic representative of the vintage as well as of the domain. The 2008 has a...
750ml
Bottle:
$27.93
100% Cabernet Franc. Les Picasses is the most famous Chinon lieu-dit, close to the village of Beaumont-En-Véron on...
750ml
Bottle:
$74.94
Black raspberry in color with an expressive nose of blueberry fruit, matcha tea, violet, and medium toasty oak. A dry...
750ml
Bottle:
$69.94
The 2021 Poggio de Colli, 100% Cabernet Franc, is stunning. It’s peppery and floral throughout, with masses of...
750ml
Bottle:
$14.33
$15.00
12 bottles:
$14.25
A silky, succulent red, with pure blackberry and black cherry fruit shaded by a graphite note. On the elegant side,...
750ml
Bottle:
$15.92
$16.66
12 bottles:
$15.83
Tart cherries, potpourri, raw spices and hibiscus flowers on the nose. This is fresh and bone-dry on the palate with...
750ml
Bottle:
$21.84
12 bottles:
$20.90
Notes of ripe plums and blackberries with dark spicy chocolate, moist bark and wet asphalt. Juicy and racy on the...
Barbera Cabernet Franc Mavrodaphne Rapid Ship
For centuries now, the beautiful red grapes of the Barbera varietal have been grown in Italy, where they are prized for their unusual high acid content and low tannins, brought about by their thin skins. The Barbera grape varietal thrives in warmer climates, and has had some success overseas in the new world, where its strongly aromatic flavors of intense hedgerow fruits make it a favorite with wineries and wine drinkers looking for a grape which offers plenty of interesting characteristics. Interestingly, the differences between young and aged wines made from this varietal are quite significant, with younger bottles holding a plethora of berry flavors, including blueberry and raspberry notes, and oak aged wines made from the Barbera grape being much loved for their ability to become extremely complex and spicy, and picking up vanilla flavors from the wood they are barreled in.
Cabernet Franc is not simply an important grape varietal for the fact that it is one of the most widely grown strains of vine in the world, but also because it is a vital grape in the production of many of the finest wines the world has ever seen. For centuries in its native France, it has been a varietal synonymous with elegance and high quality, and has become a key fruit in the production of the Bordeaux and Bordeaux-style blended wines which have gone down in history thanks to their magnificent flavors, aromas and levels of aged complexity. However, Cabernet Franc is also a wine grape varietal for use in single variety, unblended wines, and has plenty to offer on its own. Most commonly, it is renowned for its wide bouquet, which often includes fascinating notes of tobacco, violets or bell pepper over a beautifully pale and decadent liquid.
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?