CHÂTEAU VARTELY | Ice Wine | Riesling | 2017
riesling
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Tonight we are going to review an unique wine, as it is not only a dessert wine, but a true ice wine – Ice Wine Riesling 2017 from Château Vartely. Ice wines are one of the treasures of the wine world – made from riesling grapes that are left on the vines to freeze deep into the winter, so that the sugar content increases due to dehydration and frost and, as a result the wine becomes more concentrated. Once you taste a true ice wine, it is really hard to ignore this wonderful gift that a marriage of grapes and a cold climate can deliver. But enough theory, without further ado let’s move on to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:
Visual
Amber yellow color with golden-yellow shades towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with notes of jam, honey and overripe sweet fruits: quince jam, petroleum, overripe honeyed apple, rubber, honey, overripe quince, candied apricot, overripe white cherry, straw grass, lemon jam, white cherry jam, apricot jam, overripe yellow pear, candied pineapple and some nuanced hints honeysuckle.
Gustatory
The wine is extra sweet, with moderate alcohol level, high acidity and smooth tannin. This is a quite oily summer elixir: smooth, crisp and elegant, with an extremely appealing, fruity-jammy-honeyed profile. It feels velvety and creamy, with a delicious mouthfeel and a quite complex body. This wine is a real crowd-pleaser – with overwhelming acidity, this is a wine with some great ageing potential. It has a good overall balance, as it display noble signs of elegance and finesse.
Aftertaste
It has a long finish and an oily, crisp, tart and sweet aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Moldova and the overall rating says the same, with 93.4 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.
Conclusion: this is a delicious nectar wine that is still on the rise – elegant, noble and extremely appealing, with a nuanced fruity-jamy profile. It is very well balanced and harmonious – a wine that can still age for another year or two. Our recommendation is to drink it now, as long as it is still full of flamboyance and finesse. This wine will do great on its own, as an aperitif wine, or paired with baked camembert cheese served with honey, some crème brûlée, or a creamy panna cotta. Simply delicious. Yummy!
WineStatistics tasting results:
CHÂTEAU VARTELY
Ice Wine | Riesling | 2017
grape: | riesling |
overall rating: | 93.4 |
maturity: in its prime
conclusion: great | a must try
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(c) The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.
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