For The Love Of Port

Okay, my first topic started at any wine-oriented forum...

Knowing that many of you in the Port-lover community potentially have more than the average Jane/Joe in sweet wines, can anyone recommend a good botrytised or botrytis-style sweet wine in the US$10-25 range? An Australian wine perhaps? I just don't have the budget to keep going through and replenishing $80+ bottles of BA's, SGN's, and Eiswein's on a regular basis.

Recently, my better half and I finished a nicely balanced 1997 Hermann J. Wiemer Select Late Harvest Riesling (Finger Lakes, NY). I particularly enjoyed the luscious apricots, peaches, pineapple hints, and honey on the nose and palette, along with the luscious mouthfeel and exceptionally long honeyed finish -- somewhat in the vein of BA/TBA's. It had a seemingly low alcohol content -- at least that's what we perceived. We throughly enjoyed that one! Hopefully, that helps people out in knowing what I'm looking for.

On the flipside, we've had horrible experiences with a Summerhill Erhenfelser and a 1998 Weingut Rosenhof TBA (guy at a local wine retailer we hopped in to check out said it was fantastic... oh how terribly wrong and misguided was that piece of advice).

When it comes down to budget-friendly recommendations, I often find it helpful to describe what you give up when going for the budget product vs. more pricier one in threads like these. If you have an idea on that, great. If not, no worries. Whatever the case, I am definitely looking forward to your thoughts!

Cheers!

Harris,

The Topics have have to come from somewhere, right? :).

So, I'm guessing that your price range is for full bottles, and not halves? Otherwise, I'd point to the obvious Sauternes, which are well within that range for halves, at least on Futures. 2003 is a very good vintage, and certainly available on both coasts in large selection, styles, etc. Heck, you can buy 1990 Suduiraut for $60/bottle at a few places still, which is pretty amazing for an aged wine of that quality.

As far as less mainstream Dessert wines, St. Innocent makes a Late Harvest Pinot Gris that I've heard is pretty tasty, although I myself don't have much experience with them.

Nick

Nice one, Nick!

I'd be okay with half-bottles, it's just I have limited experience with Sauternes. I've also been eyeing that Suduirant, since, like you said, it's going for $60 a pop, which seems like a song for a 15 yr old bottle of Sauternes. Also, locally, I've seen '98/'99 Raymond Lafon Sauternes for $23/half-bottle, which seems like a good deal. Do you or anyone else here know about the Raymond Lafon's?

I may give that St. Innocent LH Pinot Gris a try. Cheers for the tips, Nick!

Harris,

I can't say I know much about those vintages, although I bet that Tanzer and/or Parker probably wrote about them in one of their back issues.

For myself, I tend to stick to Rieussec, La Tour Blanche, Suduiraut, Coutet, and Guiraud, which offer nice stylistic differences between them. There are a few other top ones, though too, which I don't mean to slight; I just haven't had them very much.

There is some debate, however, on how vintage specific, Sauternes actually is. Some of us, at least me anyway, are taught to really only buy and drink the 'great' vintages, i.e. 1983, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2001, and 2003 (all of mine are still on futures). I have seen on the Squires Board, some comments that off-vintage Sauternes can also be very good, and of course, can be had at even lower prices. I cannot say, myself, that I've had many 1998 or 1999's, however, mostly because no one has offered me one, and there are plenty of strong vintage wines available.

Nick

Hello Nick,

Thanks for your input on Sauternes. I'm looking forward to expanding my experience in that direction. I'll keep in mind those vintages and those houses you mentioned. Cheers on that one!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a surprising value I stumbled on. On a lark, I swung by a local wine merchant and took a gander at their Australian stickies and found a 2003 Elderton Botrytis Semillon for $17. I thought for $17, it's inexpensive enough that I don't mind gambling. Here's what I found...

On the nose, light apricot, pineapple, lemon citrus tones mingled with a scent of light honey. On the palette, fresh apricot and lemon zest with an undertone of that same honey that greeted the nose showed along side a light/moderate velvety mouthfeel. This was all packaged in a pleasant balance of sweet and acid. It finishes with moderate length with lingering notes sweet lemon zest -- no caramel, toffee, nor dried apricots. After the flavors fade, I'm left with a mildly saliva inducing sense -- somewhat like the after finish of a good Tokaji.

I think I found what I've been looking for in a budget stickie to carry me in between the $80 bottles. With such an enjoyable experience on $17, I went back and bought a few more bottles.

Thanks again for your Sauternes recommendations. I'll be keeping an eye out for opportunities at my local wine merchants. Thanks again, Nick.

Cheers,
-Harris

Ok, I'm a bit late to this, but the biggie in the Australian botrytised riesling sphere is De Bortoli's Noble One, which is fantastic value and and a great drink. I'd recommend this to anyone - it may not be produced in Sauterne, but it's a great drink in its own right!

Seppelt GR113 Rare Muscat – made from fruit from 1981 (mostly) this is stored in old barrels and not topped up, and becomes, with time, the sort of delightful dark brown treacle we saw here. The nose on these is always a treat and this featured Muscat, of course, but under that floral notes (roses?), dates and spice, sherry-like and oxidised. Very smooth on palate with exceptional length. A rare treat indeed.


A friend's tasting note from a wine we had together the other night. Botrytised or not, this is one of the world's great stickies! Make sure it says "RARE" on the bottle. There are 3 tiers of this wine and RARE is the finest and craziest!

There are some Californian botrytized wines that are close to your price range. Some are quite good. I don't think Phelps still emphasizes these wines but Ch St. Jean and Freemark Abbey still produces them. There's also a few in the Sierra Foothills regions and Sonoma and Mendicino Counties. Navarro's Cluster Select Riesling is excellent.

Some Sauternes tasting notes from last Thursday after a monumental No. Rhone event.

SAUTERNES -

1988 Rayne Vigneau - apricot and mandarin orange with moderate acidity that could have been sharper imo. Medium length to the finish. Pleasant but not an upper tier offering. 88 points.

2001 Suduiraut - I have now had this a bunch of times and it never disappoints. It was not as great as some of the other bottles I have had, but it was still a very very solid Sauternes. Citrus, coconut with viscous/unctuous mouthfeel and focused acidity that delivered extraordinary balance. 97+

2001 Lafaurie-Payraguey - others liked this better than I did. I found a distinct shortness of acidity which bothers me in sweeter styles of Sauternes. There was also a bit of a bitter characther and this lacked any real excitement for me. Not a bad wine and again, there were some in the group that REALLY like it. 91 points.

2001 La Tour Blanche - if I was going to run out to get a 2001 that I have not already bought into ... this would be the one, from this particular tasting. Impresssive with lychee honey and huge levels of botrytis. Great pineapple on the palate which was ripe and balanced by exquisitely focused acidity, which was just slightly less than I would have liked. 95 points.

2001 Guiraud - having had this before, this was a disappointing showing of this wine. A citrus aromatic profile with a bit of tart grapefruit on the palate. I am not sure if it was a flawed bottle. Nevertheless, it was an afterthought especially following the LTB. 90 points.

2001 Nairac - although the coconut and botrytis were enjoyable there was a distinct plastic note that was hard to get past in this wine. I really disliked the nose. The palate delivered though and the rich, dense mouth filling Barsac had a nice core of citrus peel and apricot that was quite enjoyable. But that nose which did not blow off, definitely detracts from the overall pleasure. 92 points.

2001 Doisy Vedrines - asian spice, exotic tropical notes and a chemical aroma I could not place. Mid weight and moderate finish did not do the palate justice. Good but not thrilling. In 2001, I have higher expectations. 91 points.