Friday, January 19, 2024

Levantine Hill 2020 Melange Botrytis

Many wine drinkers make the mistake of thinking that sweet wines must be paired with desserts. Au contraire, the French, who know a little about food and wine matching, tend to pair their classic Sauternes wines with dishes including foie gras, pates, terrines and soft cheeses. This homage to Sauternes is a blend of late-harvested semillon, sauvignon blanc, muscadelle and sauvignon gris with the whole far greater than its parts. Rich and luscious, this has apricot, marmalade, golden honey and Seville orange notes with enough acid on the finish to match the lashings of residual sugar. Well worth checking out. $60 for 375mlshttps://www.levantinehill.com.au/ 




Concentrated and complexed via infection of the selected berries with the noble Botrytis cinerea, this wine is rich and hedonistic, luscious and viscous yet elegant and structured.

Aromas of golden syrup dumplings, barley sugar, crystallised ginger, beeswax andorange marmalade meld with flavours of orange poppy seed cake, cumquat and cardamom panna cotta.

A smattering of phenolics on the finish helps draw the palate long giving resolution and profundity, keeping the sweetness in check. It will gain further richness and dark allure with careful cellaring over 10+ years.

Discover more about our 2020 Mélange Botrytis and how this unusual wine is made in our Wine Spotlight.

Note: 375ml bottle $60.  https://www.levantinehill.com.au/


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