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750ml
Bottle:
$13.94
$15.00
An inviting nose of peaches, sliced pears and dried orange peel. Medium-bodied with delightful texture. Bright and...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.44
$18.79
A fresh and pure unwooded Chenin Blanc, made to express the delicious purity of the grape. A lovely wine to enjoy on...
750ml
Bottle:
$34.84
Rated 95 -Year in, year out, this exceptional Chenin Blanc vineyard delivers the goods.... it produces a wine with...
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:
$33.94
• Certified organic.
• 100% Chenin Blanc.
• 40-50 year old vines.
• South exposure.
• Sand clay soil with...
750ml
Bottle:
$35.94
12 bottles:
$35.22
Delivers a saline beam that cuts through bruised apple and pastry notes. Concentrated on the palate, with floral lift...
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:
$10.99
A crisp, expressive, light-bodied wine. Light straw in appearance. Vibrant aromas of quince, pear and pineapple. On...
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:
$28.93
12 bottles:
$28.35
Rated 95 - From the same block as Kweperfontein but grapes picked earlier, and the winemaking featuring significant...
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...
750ml
Bottle:
$14.90
$15.41
12 bottles:
$14.64
The 2021 Barbera d'Asti Tre Vigne is a fabulous, explosive wine. Sumptuous dark cherry, ripe plum, mocha, licorice...
Barbera Chenin Blanc 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.
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?