Description
A sweet, golden Muscat from one of Beaumes de Venise’s finest family estates, fragrant and delicately honeyed. A superb dessert wine!
TASTING NOTE: A pale orange colour in the glass. On the nose: It is very fruity and floral with orange, honeysuckle and rose petal as well as some apricot and candied citrus. It’s a classic dessert wine style, and smells delicious! On the palate: Lively and fresh, with the same floral and citrus character echoed on the palate. A touch of ripe pineapple and a hint of verbena add extra layers. The sweetness is balanced by fresh acidity and smooth, fairly full body, and the 15% alcohol is well integrated.
FOOD PAIRING, STORING AND SERVING: The sweetness is ideally paired with stone fruit tarts, poached pears or almond cake. However you may also want to explore some cheese options such as Brie or Camembert. This wine can easily be chilled on its own as an aperitif. The domaine recommends serving this wine at 8 degrees C. Due to the higher alcohol content, it can hold for a relatively long time, another 10 years or so, although we like to drink it when it’s young and so beautifully fruity!
ABOUT: Domaine des Bernardins is regarded as the leading estate in Beaumes de Venise for its sweet Muscats and its dry red, with roots going back to the 1500s. The Hall family bought it in 1820, and Romain Hall now makes the wines. The property was once owned by Cistercian (Bernardin) monks, which gave the estate its name. The estate currently covers 25 hectares of which 15 are planted with Muscat. Beaumes de Venise is a Southern Rhone village in the Vaucluse just south of the Gigondas appellation and east of Vacqueyras, best known for its sweet fortified Muscat. Whole bunches are picked by hand in several passes of the vineyard, depending on ripeness, as the grapes need to have a high sugar content. As a lightly fortified and sweet wine (known in France as a vin doux naturel), the fermentation is stopped part-way by adding neutral grape spirit (called mutage). This leaves natural grape sweetness and a higher alcohol level, typically around 15%. The wine is then aged for 6 months in stainless steel tanks before bottling.
