Sweet wines certainly have their place -- ports, "stickies", eis wein, not to mention the spatlese and auslese rieslings. Unfortunately, a lot are expensive. Good German riesling are pretty rare below $20, although there are certainly good spatlese in the $25 range. Stickies in their infinite variety are vary tricky, varying from insipid to devine. One unusual one I like is the VLH from Sapphire Hill made from very late harvest Zin ... and I *do* mean late!
For me, one of the most reliable bargains are LBV ports. For those not familiar with them, these are vintage ports which have spent a lot longer in wood than regular vintage ports, which only stay there two years. An LBV can spend as much as 6 years and thus is ready to drink when it comes out of the barrel instead of needing 10-20 years or more of bottle age to reach a peak. Styles vary as much as vintage ports, so one has to experiment to find the best match for one's own taste. Top of the line for me is Smith Woodhouse, who are also my favorite in vintage ports, but SW is generally a little above $25, so doesn't make the cut here ... although it is ahead of $17 for 375 since that $26-27 is for 750ml. SW gives their LBV a lot of bottle age before releasing it so the current release is the 1995 vintage. The bargain for me is Krohn at about $13 with the current release being 2001. It has very nice chocolaty overtones on a very deep fruit base. |
