Do we ship to you?.
750ml
Bottle:
$40.95
$46.80
The 2017 Chardonnay Sangiacomo Vineyards opens with aromas of lemon meringue, popcorn, banana chip and stone fruits...
750ml
Bottle:
$20.08
12 bottles:
$19.68
The 2017 Chardonnay Bayten opens with classic aromas of spiced yellow apples, poached pears, Meyer lemon curd and...
750ml
Bottle:
$39.94
$42.48
12 bottles:
$34.28
Made from Chardonnay grapes grown only 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the famous Goldridge soils of the Russian...
750ml
Bottle:
$38.94
$40.08
12 bottles:
$38.16
The 2017 Chardonnay Estate opens with notes of toast, cream, lemon pith and hay over a core of Red Delicious apple...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.94
6 bottles:
$17.58
This layered wine comes from the neighbors' grapes, largely the noted Ferrington Vineyard, and offers enticing...
750ml
Bottle:
$20.40
12 bottles:
$19.99
Aromas of honeysuckle mingle with pink grapefruit and zesty key lime on the nose. On the palate, bright notes of...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$31.20
Attractive lemon-cream and peach aromas are framed in attractively fragrant spices. The palate has a succulent edge...
750ml
Bottle:
$26.90
$28.80
The 2017 Chardonnay is whole-bunch-pressed and matured in 30% new oak with no malolactic. The tightly wound bouquet...
750ml
Bottle:
$34.39
$36.20
12 bottles:
$33.25
Louis Latour Beaune Blanc has a pale yellow colour, the nose offers brioche bread notes, laced with subtle notes of...
750ml
Bottle:
$40.60
$46.40
This is very subtle and complete with cooked lemons and apples and a complement of straw and gunpowder. Full-bodied,...
750ml
Bottle:
$87.95
12 bottles:
$86.19
The 2017 Chardonnay Bearwallow Vineyard, from a site in the Anderson Valley, has an incredibly Burgundian bouquet of...
750ml
Bottle:
$99.94
6 bottles:
$97.94
The 2017 Chardonnay Buena Tierra Vineyard conjures up provocative notions of buttered popcorn, crème brûlée and...
750ml
Bottle:
$14.40
12 bottles:
$14.11
Precision and brightness to this chardonnay with sliced cooked-apple, peach and pie-crust aromas and flavors. Medium...
750ml
Bottle:
$87.95
$92.00
The 2017 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre ler Cru shows why this site is so highly regarded. Even with all of the...
750ml
Bottle:
$109.94
$113.10
12 bottles:
$107.74
Aromas of crushed stones and oyster shell here with a fresh, lemon and yellow-grapefruit edge. The palate has a very...
750ml
Bottle:
$163.94
An exotic, totally beguiling wine, the 2017 Chablis Les Preuses Grand Cru melds together rich fruit with saline,...
Chardonnay Mavrodaphne Sherry 2017 750ml
Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.
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.