The third sherry on offer was the Vera Viola Oloroso, a semi-sweet wine that is, or so I was told, more in the Spanish style.
These are wines that are flying under the radar as far as popular taste in Australia is concerned. In a way, you’d almost hope they stay that way and never make a comeback. If that were to be the case, the aficionados might be able to quietly enjoy sipping away at some fine styles without breaking the bank.
But, on the other hand, there’s a danger they’ll disappear altogether if producing them becomes less attractive to the bean-counters who are starting to rule the roost in the upper echelons of the big wine concerns.
However, now I know what I’ve been missing I’ll be doing my bit to sustain them in the future.
Moving on to the Tawny side of things the Cellar No. 7 ($20) with an average age of five years was a light style that doesn’t need a log fire on a cold winter night while the Para Grand Tawny ($26) with an average age of ten years was wonderfully complex.
The sale of the winery and its large stocks of unfashionable fortified wine meant the new owners acquired substantial supplies of Rutherglen Muscat and Tokay and, as a lover of both there was no way I was going to be walking out without sampling what was on offer.
The Cellar No. 6 Tokay and Cellar No. 8 Muscat (both $20) were excellent examples of the younger version of these great Rutherglen styles, while the Grand Tokay and Grand Muscat (both 500mL $32) were just superb.
The ownership shakeout has resulted in changes to names and labelling, but someone wandering into a bottle shop to find something under the Seppelts label at around the same price point will probably be looking at the same product,