"This Christmas I’ll mostly be drinking aged Tawny Port, inspired by an extraordinary tasting where I sampled a dozen aged Ports from Kopke, the oldest of the Port houses."
It’s International Sherry Week (November 7-13): cue my annual public service announcement to remind all wine lovers that sherry is a wine worth getting to know and one with diverse sub-categories and styles. Today’s appeal presents three gorgeous winter-friendly sherries by way of evidence. In a two-for-one service, I’m throwing in an introduction to my favourite wine discovery from this year: aged white port.
A few weeks back, I spotlighted some unsung grape varieties that deserve greater attention, focusing on white wines for autumn drinking. My top pick was the intriguing Supernova Blanc ‘Moll’ from Ca’n Verdura, a tiny garage-based winery where sixth-generation Mallorcan winemaker Tomeu Llabrés works with native island varieties. Today’s follow-up swings that spotlight onto some lesser-spotted red grape varieties. These include the late-ripening Mantenegro grape which thrives in the poor rocky soils of western Mallorca, and stars in Ca’n Verdura’s red Supernova Negre.
Today’s eclectic wine recommendations all come from the recently announced Irish Wine Show Star Awards 2023-2024. Organised by the National Off-Licence Association (NOffLA), these annual awards always turn out a few pleasant surprises at decent prices, and the smart booklet produced to promote the 54 winners is worth a browse. You’ll find copies of it along with the winning wines in your local independent off-licence, if it’s one of the 315 NOffLA members nationwide. Look out, too, for gift packs of the winners in the run-up to Christmas.