Single Quinta

“Single farm” in Portuguese. It is used to refer to a specific vineyard and to a wine estate. Single Quinta Ports come from grapes grown on a single estate in a single year in the Douro Valley of Portugal.

The sweet Sherry, Pedro Ximénez, gets its sweetness from the botrytized grapes used in making the wine.

Answer: False.

The Pedro Ximénez grapes used to make the sweet, ebony-colored Sherry, also known as Pedro Ximénez, achieve their concentration by being dried on straw mats in the intense Spanish sun for about a week, not by the beneficial fungus, botrytis cinerea. The mats are covered at night, so the grapes are spared from the morning dew. Once made and aged in a solera, the wine will be 40 to 50 percent residual sugar—that’s more than three times the sweetness of Bordeaux’s Sauternes. The result is an elixir that is so mesmerizing you just have to try it.

Diacetyl

Diacetyl is a buttery-tasting compound that is a by-product of malolactic fermentation, the process in which beneficial bacteria turn sharp-tasting malic acid in wine to softer lactic acid. Chardonnays that have gone through malolactic fermentation… Continue reading

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