Floral wines beginning to blossom in China
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E-mail People's Daily, October 19, 2012
The Clouds Winery makes a white wine infused with fresh osmanthus flowers. The semi-sweet wine has lively cherry and floral qualities and good acidity.
The Viction wine I tasted was also a white wine but the osmanthus flowers where soaked in brandy before being added to the wine, resulting in a sweeter wine more suitable for desserts. The wine offers quite concentrated fruit and floral aromas and flavors. The third osmanthus wine I tasted was homemade.
A Taiwan wine importer created the wine for the Taipei International Flora Exhibition in 2010. He took several bottles of dry Alsatian Riesling and added osmanthus flower pedals. After two weeks of cold storage the wines were remarkably fresh and exhibited the yellow fruit and mineral qualities of a good Alsatian Riesling along with a delightful, sweet fragrance.
The best wines that feature fragrances of osmanthus are made entirely with grapes. They have no osmanthus added. This is one of the magical qualities of wine, a liquid made entirely with grapes that can offer thousands of beautiful aromas and flavors, including the somewhat elusive osmanthus.
In most wines aromas of osmanthus are quite subtle, usually a secondary or tertiary scent. They are usually found in white wines. Discovering these delicate aromas and even flavors in wine takes some effort.
Some of the varietals that occasionally exhibit olfactory sensations of osmanthus are Torrontes, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat. All these popular varieties are known for floral qualities and while scents of roses, violets and other flowers may be more obvious, discerning tasters may also discover the elegant sweet aromas of osmanthus flowers.
Over the past three years I've discovered subtle scents and even flavors of osmanthus in a number of wines, including three Argentinean Torrontes white wines.
The high-end Dominio del Plata Crios de Susana Balbo, 2010 white wine offers several floral experiences with delicate hints of osmanthus on the back palate.
Another premium Torrontes wine, the Colome Torrontes 2010, also exhibits plentiful floral qualities, especially rose and jasmine scents but also with a wisp of osmanthus in the finish. Conversely, the INCA Calchaqui Valley Torrontes Chardonnay, 2010 has front palate sensations of ripe citrus fruit ever so slightly scented with osmanthus.
Other dry white wines I've tasted that have faint notes of osmanthus flowers are the Gustave Lorentz Gewurztraminer Reserve from Alsace, the Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Riesling from New Zealand and the Marco Felluga Collio Pinot Grigio from Friuli, Italy.
Some ice wines also offer sensations of osmanthus. While in the US two months ago, I tasted a bottle of Jackson-Triggs Proprietors Reserve Ice Wine that had lovely sweet floral qualities including hints of osmanthus.
Reviewing my wines notes over the past three years, I also found osmanthus aromas in top Trockenbeerenauslese TBA ice wines. The Schonberg TBA from the Rheinhesessen region in Germany has very pleasant osmanthus aromas along with other floral and honey scents.
You may have to work a little harder to discover the delicate aromas of osmanthus in white wines, but its well worth the effort.
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