Last week while having a terrific dinner at Biba in Sacramento, the waitress surprised me with a glass of Torcolato, an Italian dessert wine. It's a wine proprietary to the Maculan winery, 2000 cases a year.

Torcolato is made in the recioto style - the grapes are allowed to dry on the vine, usually picking up some botrytis rot. The result is a sweet wine not unlike a Trockenbeerenauslese. My glass had a lovely balance between sweet and acid, without the heavy cloying botryized taste that Sauternes can have. Very nice.

I know a fair amount about wine; it's nice to be surprised with something new.

culturefood
  2003-09-07 02:35 Z