This is a great time of year to explore the strong and sweet wines that we too often overlook. All prices are for full 75cl bottles unless otherwise stated and I have done my best to list the wines in ascending price per cl.
See below for a key to the abbreviations.
Ch Les Sablines 2002 Monbazillac
£6.99 Waitrose
Good value. Far form subtle and this will not improve but it does tastes very good for the money now. (Interesting that Haut-Brion chose a Monbazillac rather than a Sauternes for the sweet wine in their new Clarendelle range.)
Finest Reserve Port
£7.99/5.99 M&S
Great value even at its regular price of £7.99 for a wine from Taylors that, with its dry finish and scent of olives, is definitely a cut above an average ruby. The reduced price holds until the end of the year – despite the wine’s winning Decanter magazine’s trophy for Best Fortified Wine under £10 in September.
Organic Port
£9.99 larger M&S
Interesting idea – although the Douro Valley is not my first suspect for using an excess of agrochemicals. Another particularly wild example from the Taylors stable. Very fine and smoother than the Finest Reserve above.
De Bortoli Show Liqueur Muscat NV South Eastern Australia
£9.99/8.99 Maj
Whether anyone has sufficiently strong teeth for the second bottle needed to earn the discount is debatable but this is a great buy. Tawny orange, tasting of molten treacle toffees and liquorice, this has clearly been aged in wood somewhere hot. A useful midwinter reminder that the sun does still shine somewhere?
Muscat de Beaumes de Venise 2004 Dom de la Pigeade
£10.25 SVS
Remember this easy, grapey, golden wine? At 15 per cent it’s no stronger than some of today’s table wines and is much easier to sip than many of them. Serve well chilled, even with ice creams and mousses.
Almond Grove Noble Late Harvest Riesling 2003 Robertson
£5.99/4.99 37.5cl Maj
Tangy, slightly smoky South African that tastes like the juice of raisins soaked in tea – good value, believe it or not.
Fortnum’s Late Bottled Vintage Port 2000 Niepoort
£13.50 F&M
Quite a bargain, this is the real thing and absolutely brimming with raisins, spice and the wild briary character of the Douro valley.
MR Moscatel 2004 Málaga
£9.50 50cl Adnams
Refreshing pale orange flower-scented marvel from Telmo Rodriguez who pioneered this new, refreshing style of sweet wine from shale slopes above the Costa del Sol. He also makes a more serious, ageworthy version, Molino Real.
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2000 Ca’ del Pipa
£15.99 Maj
There has been an extraordinary increase in the amount of this unusual strong, sweet red made in the Veneto. I found this particular example more rewarding than most with a sweet and sour style – lots of sweetness at first and then a strange hint of meat extract. Could do well with cheese, even possibly stilton.
Künstler, Hochheimer Kirchenstück Riesling Spätlese 2004 Rheingau
£15.99 Waitrose – most stores
Dense flavours of lime and honey. Not that sweet but a wonderfully fruity essence – very lively and nutty. Afternoon or late night sipping.
Gaillac Doux, Renaissance 2002 Dom Rotier
£10.85 50cl Vine Trail
Bargain price for this extremely rich, botrytised nectar made from the intensely local Loin de l’Oeil grape. The sweet wines of Gaillac really have a head of steam on them now.
Jurançon Moelleux, Selection des Terrasses 2002 Dom Larreyda
£11.95 50cl BBR
Very exciting and tangy with lots of fresh Petit Manseng fruit on the palate. This would wake you up after a heavy meal.
Henriques & Henriques 1995 Single Harvest Madeira
£11.99 50cl WR
Comforting madeira that is more raisiny than many but has an attractively dry, tangy finish.
Coteaux du Layon Beaulieu, L’Anclaie 2003 Ch de Pierre Bise
£12.95 50cl L&S
So dependable – magically honeyed Chenin Blanc – fuller and richer than usual but still with refreshing Loire lift.
Calem Colheita 1990 Tawny Port
£20 Waitrose Inner Cellar
Deep rose red, very vigorous fruit yet a gentle, comforting assault on the palate with a certain nuttiness.
Rivesaltes Ambré 1995 A & B Cazes
£10.99/7.33 37.5cl WR
Extremely sticky and an attractive pale tawny but very light and fine at the same time. Foritified Grenache Blanc and Gris deliberately aged in Roussillon. Not a bad price for a 10 year-old wine. A reasonably gentle 15 per cent, about the same as most Napa Valley Cabernets.
Quinta de Noval 1978 vintage port
£22 Maj (selected stores)
Very good price for this oddity – a vintage port declared in a year ignored by most other shippers. Noval has since been taken over and restored by AXA but this shows some of the estate’s potential to produce wines with real personality – nutty, rich but not particularly sweet on the finish. Could be good with mature cheddar or walnuts.
Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas 1996
£22.41 Tesco, £24/22 Maj, £25 Waitrose Inner Cellar
Very rich, lively and full of life with a peppery finish. Cut price Taylor’s vintage port from the main estate that supplies it. Drink between now and 2012.
Sassdoro Vin Santo 2001 Il Colombaio di Cencio
£14.95 50cl L&S
Very lively Tuscan dried grape wine reminiscent, in an appetising way, of apple skins. Refreshing.
Tokaji 5 Puttonyos 2000 Royal Tokaji
£14.99/13.99 50cl Maj
Dusty polish, dried apricots, revitalising acidity and a keen price for this historic wine.
Fortnum’s 10 year old Tawny Port Niepoort
£22.50 F&M
Beautifully pale tawny. Nutty interest and lovely transparency with a refreshingly dry finish.
Ch Doisy Daëne 2003 Sauternes
£11.99 37.5cl top Waitrose stores
Very full and rich – a great buy from a massively sweet vintage. Big, bold and already expressive. Larger Morrisons have the slightly less bumptious 2002 at £14.99 a half.
Matusalem Oloroso Dulce Muy Viejo 30 year old VORS sherry
£11.99 37.5cl WR
Gonzalez Byass’s miraculous nectar, essence of macerated raisins and walnuts, now has its age spelt out on the label and is almost certainly a lot more than 30 years old. Refreshingly dry finish. Marvellous stuff for winter drinking. And ridiculously cheap.
Darting Estate Eiswein 1997
£12 37.5cl larger M&S
If you always wondered what an Eiswein, made from grapes frozen on the vine, tasted like, this would certainly give you an idea of the combination of richness and acidity. Technically it’s an Ungsteiner Honigsäckel Scheurebe Eiswein, but then you would probably have known that the minute you tasted it.
Clos d’Yvigne 1999 Saussignac
£19.20 50cl J&B
Author Patricia (The Ripening Sun) Atkinson’s marvel – a wonderfully satin texture, beautifully made, pale tawny barley sugar.
Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos 1999 Istvan Szepsy
£19.90 50cl F&M
Wonderfully unctuous. Peachy nose and a te and rose petal flavour that just slides over the palate. Very lively.
Lustau Anada 1989 Rich Oloroso Sherry
£14.99 37.5cl Waitrose Inner Cellar
Who says Jerez is sleepy? Another interesting new style of sherry – orange and chestnut flavours. Broad, flattering, not at all cloying and great with cheddar or walnuts.
Warre 1997
£30 BBR
Now here’s a case of a Berrys’ own label being great value. This is the wine labelled as Berrys Own Selection Vintage Port and costs considerably less than the same wine almost anywhere outside Portugal.
Solera 1928 Maury
about £17 50cl Philglas & Swiggot, Reid Wines
Wonderfully refreshing, long-aged fortified Grenache from Roussillon.
Taylor’s 20 year old Tawny Port
£22/20 50cl Maj
Pale rose colour. Beautifully delineated, gentle wine which starts out as marzipan and ends up as almond cream.
How to find the wines
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all retailers mentioned here, merely those for whom an abbreviation was useful. Most retailers offer discounts on bigger orders; many sell online; some of the smaller ones sell a minimum of 12 assorted bottles. For details of more stockists, in the UK and internationally, see www.winesearcher.com
BBR – Berry Bros & Rudd
BRW – Big Red Wine Company, Barton Mills, Suffolk
F&M – Fortnum & Mason, London
HN – Harvey Nichols, London
IFR – Irma Fingal Rock, Monmouth
J&B – Justerini & Brooks, London SW1 and Edinburgh
L&S – Lea & Sandeman around London
M&S – Marks & Spencer
Maj – Majestic (second price denotes a multiple bottle purchase)
Oddb – Oddbins
Sains – Sainsbury’s
SVS – Stone, Vine & Sun, Twyford SO21 1QA
Thresh – Thresher (second per bottle price applies if three bottles are bought)
WotT – Wine of the Times, London
WR – Wine Rack (second per bottle price applies if three bottles are bought)
CdP – Châteauneuf-du-Pape
CDRV – Côtes-du-Rhône Villages
Ch – Château
Dom – Domaine
NV – non vintage
VDP – Vin de Pays
VOSR – very old sherry