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Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $29.94 $33.20
Barrel Sample. This wine is packed with dry botrytis flavor, but also a bright freshness. Together they give an...
WE
96
WS
95
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $35.90
12 bottles: $35.18
One of the top Sauternes in this report is the 2016 Château Guiraud, a brilliant wine from a more challenging...
12 FREE
WE
96
JD
96
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $37.45
12 bottles: $36.70
Barrel Sample. Ripe, botrytized fruit currently dominates this wine with its rich concentration. It is a full and...
12 FREE
WE
96
VM
95
Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $54.94 $59.20
Barrel Sample. Ripe, botrytized fruit currently dominates this wine with its rich concentration. It is a full and...
12 FREE
WE
96
VM
95
Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $29.90 $32.20
12 bottles: $29.45
Apricots, honeysuckle, lemons, mango crumble, earl grey and vanilla beans on the nose. Pretty spice notes that keep...
WA
94
JS
94
Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $51.94 $57.20
Apricots, honeysuckle, lemons, mango crumble, earl grey and vanilla beans on the nose. Pretty spice notes that keep...
WA
94
JS
94
Case only
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $49.94
Wow. This has a seamless texture and wonderful depth of fruit with dried pineapple, pear and hints of honey. Full...
12 FREE
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96
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95
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $33.94
12 bottles: $33.26
Brilliant golden robe. Attractive complex nose of acacias, white flowers, lemon, and a touch of honey. Light, fruity...
12 FREE
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $20.94
Brilliant golden robe. Attractive complex nose of acacias, white flowers, lemon, and a touch of honey. Light, fruity...
Dessert/Fortified Wine
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $14.95
24 bottles: $12.97
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $25.60
12 bottles: $25.09
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $38.25
12 bottles: $37.49
Pale to medium gold colored, the 2009 Carmes de Rieussec opens with evolving honey-coated almonds, lemon pie and...
12 FREE
WA
92
JS
90
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $19.94
12 bottles: $19.54
90-91 A pretty second wine of Rieussec with creamy, cooked pear and apple character. Some soufflé character, too....
12 FREE
WA
91
JS
91
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $18.13
12 bottles: $17.22
Full nose with notes of jammy white fruit, which evolve towards bitter orange. The initial impression is delicate,...
Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $123.12 $136.80
Captivating, tangy aromas of vineyard peach, pear, white flowers and curry powder. Supple and very concentrated;...
12 FREE
VM
92
WA
91
Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $81.00 $90.00
93-96 Balanced and very spicy, with almond paste and apricot. Full-bodied, medium sweet, with a long, fruity, tangy...
12 FREE
WS
96
VM
93
Sale
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $63.95 $71.10
95-96 I love the botrytis spice character to this wine with dried apricots and tropical fruits. It’s full bodied,...
12 FREE
VM
96
WE
96
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $39.20
A step up over the Carmes de Rieussec, the beautiful 2016 Château Rieussec has remarkable purity and freshness while...
WE
97
JS
97
Dessert/Fortified Wine
750ml
Bottle: $80.40
6 bottles: $79.20
A step up over the Carmes de Rieussec, the beautiful 2016 Château Rieussec has remarkable purity and freshness while...
12 FREE
WE
97
JS
97

Grappa Semillon/sauvignon Blanc Sherry

Like so many of the great spirits of Europe, Grappa was born from a need to make resources go that little bit further, to eke out the last drop of flavor and potential from the crops of winemakers. Indeed, Italian vintners invented Grappa as a way to make use of the pomace - leftover grape skins, stems, pulp and seeds - which remained after the juice was extracted from the fruit needed to make wine. Over the centuries, the process was refined, and the distillation of Grappa became an art in itself. Today, top Grappa producers use a range of state of the art equipment, from continuous stills to pot stills, to manufacture a wide variety of Grappas, each with their own distinct characteristics.


Most of us know Grappa from our local Italian restaurants, where it is commonly served as a digestif. However, in the twenty first century, there is a high interest in unique, boutique Grappas, which showcase the talent of the distillers through a range of interesting qualities. Grappa can be aged in oak, in which case it takes on a beautiful golden color, quite different from the clear Grappas we are most familiar with. The high end Grappas are a world away from the harsh spirit many of us have encountered, and have a smooth, gentle quality which can be nothing short of a revelation.

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.