Discover a New Tradition

The perfect wine to accompany summer fruit has arrived. Domaine Bellegarde, Cuvée Tradition, Jurançon Moelleux has luscious complex fruit, balance and length.  The finish is not too sweet, making it an elegant and gorgeously structured wine.

DiscoverVin have just taken delivery of the 2012 vintage of what has been one of our most popular dessert style wines.

Jancis Robinson gave it a very good score of 17 points and featured it on her "tip-top whites and fortifieds". December 5th 2014..."Not much nose but fabulous balance of tang, acidity and sweetness. A perfect sweet wine for foie gras? So direct and revitalising. Exceptional value for a full 75-cl bottle although half bottles are also available".

The sweet wines of Jurançon are amongst the great sweet/dessert wines of the world and great value for money. This is an excellent example and the 375ml bottle is ideal to serve to complete summer meals.

Cuvée Tradition is made from Manseng grapes. This wine uses 65% Gros Manseng and 35% Petit Manseng.

The wines are not botrytised, in fact it is said that the thick skin of the manseng grapes protects against rot.  A long dry autumn allows the wines to dry on the vine and concentrate flavours. Fermentation and vinification occurs in oak barrels for the Petit Manseng, which gives an added complexity. The Gros Manseng is fermented and vinified in stainless steel.

Jurançon is a beautiful, hilly area in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in the south west of France.  The snow capped mountains can be seen from the vineyards and winery at Domaine Bellegarde, which is one of the best producers in the area.  It is a family estate with 14 hectares of vineyards.  They use organic practices and combine modern technology while maintaining the traditions of past generations.

Our tasting notes: Shiny gold/yellow colour. On the nose complex citrus and peach tones. The balance is excellent, complex citrus and stone fruits. Moelleux means sweet but unlike many dessert wines from Australia this wine has a drier finish. They can be consumed on their own (often the French would have them as an aperitif) with pate, cheeses and it is absolutely delicious with fruit desserts.

Almost a perfect wine- La Rayre Rosé

One of the stars of this summer's Rose Revolution is Chateau La Rayre Bergerc Rose 2010. 

For the second year running this wine has been selected by French consumers for a guide called "almost a perfect wine" (A vin presque parfait). 

A consumer-led panel (some wine experts are also on the panel) selects about 200 wines from the thousands available to have this title, "almost a perfect wine". Wines are choosen on the basis of taste (funny that!) and price/value for money. Given this wine tastes delicious and sells for under $20, its not a surprise really that it has been chosen 2 years in a row!

To date this has been one of our best selling wines- it seems to appeal to wine lovers who would not normally look at rosé. It is darker in colour and has more body than other styles of rosé (this is acheived by a pressing of the skins with the juice which otherwise would be clear). We poured this wine at The Paris to Provence Festival in Melbourne Nov 23-25 and it had a great response.

"Enjoying the La Rayre rosé tonight. Alison says her favorite rosé ever. Big call for her!" James, Melbourne 1/5/2012

Here are some of the technical details:

Region/Terroir: from the appellation Bergerac.

Grapes: Made from merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc.

Wine making: Made by the saignée method at low temperature.

Our Tasting notes: Blackcurrant nose with an ample unctuous palate. Beautiful balance and freshness.

Alcohol:13%

Drink young and chilled. Drink on its own or with food. A great wine to take to a bbq or to the beach-goes with just about anything! A great lunch wine or for a sunset tipple or in the heat when you don’t feel like a red. Almost perfect!