I LIKE a chocolate pot as much as the next man, but chocolate is rarely a friend to wine. It tends to coat the palate, effectively meaning that the wine can’t hit your tastebuds and is therefore wasted.
One of the few exceptions is a luscious Australian fortified sweetie, which can cut through just about anything on the palate, even a thick layer of Shirley’s lovely chocolate.
One of the most famous examples of the style is the Campbells Rutherglen Muscat (Waitrose, £12.99 for a half bottle), a non-vintage sweet wine made in Victoria by the fourth generation of the Campbells. The wine is made in a solera system similar to those used to make sherry in Jerez, hence it’s a “non-vintage”. The wine sits in old barrels, with the oldest wine in the end barrel in the row. Bottles are drawn from this barrel which is then topped up by the second-oldest barrel which is then topped up by the third and so on. This allows the producers to create a consistent style from release to release and it makes the wine very special indeed. In terms of the taste, you get a lovely raisin note on the palate with a perfectly balanced and subtle oak quality.
Harder to find, but just as tasty, is the Bethany Old Quarry Tawny (Inverarity One to One, £18.99 for 75cl). This is a late harvest blend of Grenache and Shiraz, which has been fortified with a good quality grape brandy before being aged in old oak for about 10 years. It’s fantastic with cheese, rich fruit puddings and chocolate pots.
An alternative to the Aussie stickies would be a nice glass of brandy. Here are two to tempt your tastebuds this weekend.
Hine Rare VSOP Cognac (Waitrose, £47). Hine makes delicate and fruity styles of brandy, mostly from two prestigious regions within Cognac, Grande and Petite Champagne. This is actually one of my favourite bottles in the whole Hine range and I think it often outperforms some of its more expensive cousins.
Or why not completely blow the budget on a bottle of the Baron de Sigognac Bas Armagnac 1967 (Inverarity One to One, £175). This one is from France’s other quality brandy region, Armagnac. It’s incredibly smooth and complex as you’d expect at the price, and as well as making the ideal after-dinner digestif, it’s also the perfect present for the 50-year-old in your life who has everything.
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