Excellent article on dry wines' role in sweet wine survival

[Lindsay E.]

In case any of you FTLOP members from Seattle area are snowed in this weekend, I thought I'd include a link to a GuildSomm article about the role of Dry wines in Sweet/fortified wine economic sustainability.

The article begins with a focus on the Douro wines then moves to Tokaj, Sauternes and Sicily. GuildSomm is the premier web resource for people studying for any of the Court of Master Sommelier degrees.

Recently, I have been loving the Dry white wines from Tokaj (along with the dry Douro reds and the dry bordeaux whites.) These regions are all making some wonderful value wines and I would encourage any of you looking for Dry wines values to explore these regions if you have not already done so. I have not yet tried zibibbo from Sicily, but I can vouch for the dry Sicilian whites made from Carricante and Fiano as well as the dry reds from Nero d'Avola and Nerello Mascalese.

Some wines in these categories that I've personally enjoyed are Quinta de la Rosa Douro Red, Chateau Pajzos Furmint Tokaj white and Chateau Guiraud G Bordeaux blanc sec.

Here is a link to the article:
https://www.guildsomm.com/public_conten ... et-regions

[Eric Menchen]

A very informative read. Thanks!

To avoid the risk, Doisy-Daëne’s Sauternes is vinified entirely from Sémillon, while their dry wine is exclusively Sauvignon Blanc (although in select vintages, they bottle a special monovarietal Sauternes cuvée called L’Extravagant from Sauvignon Blanc).

This contradicts what I had previously read. I understood that Doisy-Daëne favored Sémillon over Sauvignon Blanc in their regular Sauternes, in opposition to most other producers, and that they flipped this with the L’Extravagant; but not that either was monovarietal. I wouldn't call this source authoritative, but it suggests the Extravagant is a blend, that varies from year to year. https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/bo ... isy-daene/

Interestingly the blends change from vintage to vintage. In some vintages, the wine is produced from 100% Sauvignon Blanc. In other years, for example, 1996 and 2010, the wine was produced from 50% Semillon and 50% Sauvignon Blanc. In 2007, the blend was about 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Semillon. To make things even more confusing, or fun, depending on your point of view, in 1997, the wine was made from 100% Semillon!

And Wikipedia suggests that their regular Sauternes is close to the vineyard holdings, which are 86% Sémillon and 14% Sauvignon blanc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2t ... Da%C3%ABne