In the final part of this series, we would like to take the chance to share with you our experience with the fortified and dessert wines that Gonzalez Byass feature in their excellent portfolio. We have not covered any of the wonderful spirits that the group sells in large quantities simply because we do not retail any of them yet but we took notes and we promise we will write a blog post about them once we get a hold of them.
We initiated that sequel of our wine journey at the stand of Disznókő which made it a reasonable transition from the vast selection of red, white, and sparkling wines that we had tasted so far. Established in the distant 1413, the winery is renowned for creating a magnificent style of sweet Tokaji wines and some very unique dry white wines. TippleHub stocks Disznókő’s Tokaji 1413 ÉS which is an excellent example and can be very well enjoyed not only with desserts and cheeses but with seafood or duck dishes too.
Next, we stopped at our favourite drink for the season – Vermouth La Copa, by Gonzalez Byass. The producer’s recipes have always been a well-kept secret although one could guess some of the botanicals that are blended with Fino, Oloroso, and Pedro Ximénez wines. La Copa’s whole range of vermouth is delicious and so versatile – you could enjoy it as a party drink neat over ice, or as a long drink with soda, tonic, or your favourite choice of mixer. For beginners, we recommend the Vermouth Blanco Extra Seco La Copa. You could easily find it at your hub for online shopping, TippleHub, where you can also buy craft beer online, buy wines online or simply follow the latest trends within the industry of craft drinks, party drinks, and healthier non-alcoholic or low-alcohol drinks.
As the day was coming to an end we moved on to Quinta do Noval to taste some fine ports by a producer dating back to 1715. What a treat! So much can be written about this house and we will probably dedicate a whole article on them later on. In the meantime, you can get in touch with their Noval Black Port at TippleHub – a delicious dark ruby port with complex character and notes of ripe berries, violet, plums, cherries, oak, and vanilla. А well-balanced sweetness/acidity/tannins ratio makes this fortified wine a perfect match for dark chocolate.
Other Gonzalez Byass masterpieces on display included quality sherries from their home in Jerez. The product range is very extensive and one can definitely find something to fall in love with. We are so looking forward to getting some of these on our online hub.
Another sherry producer, the UK’s leading Pale Cream sherry brand, Croft Original has satisfied UK customers for generations with its Fino. Nowadays, however, they have come up with a great summer ready-mixed drink based on their sherry and the Andalusian ‘rebujito’, adding elderflower, lemon, and mint flavours plus sparkling water to produce their version of a spritz, a Fino Spritz. We are a proud stockist of this summer party drink although within the team there are some fears that we are drinking too much of it and the stock can run dry. Oops!