2021 Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, Domaine des Bernardins, Rhône
Critics reviews
75% Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, 25% Muscat Noir à Petits Grains. The wine is aged in stainless-steel tanks for six months before bottling.
Tasted blind. Candied fruits, toffee apple and grapes. A ripe and super-concentrated palate, unctuous and with excellent acidity behind it. A creamy caramel note alongside fresh jasmine and Turkish delight. Utterly delicious!
Drink 2024 - 2034
Alistair Cooper MW, JancisRobinson.com (November 2022)
Aged in stainless steel. 110g/L residual sugar.
Peach in colour, not white. Fruits span pêche de vigne, lychee, and melon, with a touch of butterscotch in the background. It is fairly full-bodied, fresh, and finishes clean, not cloying. There is further peach on the finish. It has a great sense of purity. It is not a hugely powerful vintage but a very good one, with balance and purity.
Drink 2022 - 2036
Matt Walls, Decanter.com (October 2022)
About this WINE
Domaine des Bernardins
From the other end of the stylistic spectrum to Durban, and, coincidentally, located at the other end of the village, Domaine des Bernardins makes a darker, richer style of pudding wine. The promotion to stand-alone status for the red wines of the village, an accolade long-since awarded to the sweet wines, may, hopefully serve to revitalise interest in these wonderfully pure pudding wines.
Beaumes de Venise
Beaumes de Venise, an attractive village in Vaucluse, next to Vacqueyras and Gigondas, was upgraded to AOC status in 2005 for its good-quality, medium-bodied, fleshy, peppery reds. It is a region, however, that remains better known for its sweet, fortified Muscats which have their own AOC, Muscat de Beaumes de Venise.
The reds are soft but have a good structure, and thus need a couple of years to mature. They are made from at least 50 percent Grenache and 25 percent Syrah with the rest from various other varieties, up to five percent of which can be white. White and rosé wines are also made here but are classified as Côtes du Rhône.
Apart from the sparkling wines of Clairette de Die, this is the only part of the Rhône which uses Muscat, and yet it provides the most elegant, sweet fortified Muscats in the world. Little sweet Muscat was made before 1945, when Muscat de Beaumes de Venise was classified an AOC for its Vin Doux Naturel, but by the 1970s and 1980s its popularity in northern Europe was probably greater than Sauternes or sweet German wines.
Despite its minimum 15 percent alcohol, low acidity and intense sweetness, Muscat de Beaumes de Venise is surprisingly delicate and refreshing, with a lovely floral fragrance and sweet, pale-gold, grapey fruit. Made exclusively from the best variety, Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, , it is made by adding pure grape spirit to the must when it has reached five percent alcohol. It should be drunk as young as possible, lightly-chilled, either as an apéritif, with or after dessert (where it makes a very good match for ice-cream).
Recommended Producer: Domaine de Durban
Muscat
Muscat refers to a family of grapes of which there are around 200 different branches. Muscat Blancs à Petits Grains is the most noble of the variety and makes the best and most distinctive wines. It is the only wine grape that produces wines that actually taste of grapes, and can produce a range of wines from pale, bone dry whites, through to golden yellow, rich, sweet wines.
In Alsace, two types of Muscat are grown - Muscat Blancs à Petits Grains and Muscat Ottonel. They are usually blended to produce wines that tend to be light and dry with a fruity, musky character and an intensely aromatic bouquet. Intensely sweet late harvest wines are also produced.
Muscat de Beaumes de Venise is one of the best Vin Doux Naturels in France. This is produced by adding grape spirit to the partly fermented must - the best producers, such as Domaine de Durban, produce deliciously sweet wines with rich grapey aromas balanced by fruity acidity.
In Australia Muscat à Petit Grains is used to produce the fortified Liqueur Muscats of Victoria (esp. Rutherglen). These are extraordinary wines - dark and treacly with a sensational perfume of orange, raisins and honey.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
75% Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, 25% Muscat Noir à Petits Grains. The wine is aged in stainless-steel tanks for six months before bottling.
Tasted blind. Candied fruits, toffee apple and grapes. A ripe and super-concentrated palate, unctuous and with excellent acidity behind it. A creamy caramel note alongside fresh jasmine and Turkish delight. Utterly delicious!
Drink 2024 - 2034
Alistair Cooper MW, JancisRobinson.com (November 2022)
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