Sparkling, Fortified and Dessert Wine

Join us for an evening exploring the wines that“top and tail” fine dinners. We are of course talking about sparkling wines so often served an a aperitif, fortified wines that are often use to accompany the cheese board but are in fact much more versatile than that, and finally dessert wines that go brilliantly with anything sweet.

During the evening, we will have some suitable nibbles to pair up with our wines.

Sparkling Wines

When looking at this category there are two names that stand out.

• Firstly Champagne, the original (or is it?), world famous and premium priced, made by the traditional method.
• Secondly the wine that has made sparkling wine affordable – Prosecco. This wine is not made by the traditional method, and its sales have doubled worldwide in just a few years.

Fortified Wines

Spain and Portugal produce by far the most famous fortified wines.

Firstly, we will sample a dry Sherry from Jerez. There is so much more to this fascinating drink than “cream sherry”, discover why this is such a versatile drink and goes so well with Tapas.

Secondly, the wine that has a huge British connection from Portugal is of course Port. This medium sweet, high alcohol red wine is a favourite with the cheeseboard, but also works well with chocolate.

Dessert Wines
The oldest and (arguably the best) dessert wine is Tokaji Aszu from Hungary. But if you want to sample that, you should come along on the Europe Beyond the Big 3 event instead.

• Although the French didn’t invent the idea of using grapes with “Noble Rot”, they did make a massive success of it, most famously with Sauternes from Bordeaux.
• Finally, as a very special treat, an alternative way of producing incredibly sweet wine is to freeze the grapes on the vine – Ice Wine. The conditions in Canada are ideal for this and we will thus sample something very special – Canadian Ice Wine.

This event can of course be bought as a standalone, but can also be incorporated into an extended course, check out the details below.

Explore the wines of Europe – 5 Week Option
World of Wine – 8 Week Option