Wine Type: Sweet

(2026) From volcanic and tufa hills this is 100% Moscato from healthy late-harvest grapes with no Botrytis. The fruit is dried for one month, and the wine does not see any time in oak. It is bottled with 110 g/l of residual sugar. Fresh herb and lots of floral aromatics, lots of Spring blossom freshness. Fully sweet on the palate but quite light, with honeyed and chilled grape flavours, flowing with very nice acidity. Eminently drinkable. Price is for a half bottle, and the previous vintage at time of review.

(2026) This is 100% Vespaiolo from the Breganze hills, the grapes dried for four months to concentrate flavours and sugar before spending one year in french oak barriques, one-third new. It has 150g/l of residual sugar and is such a lovely wine: barley sugar, Mandarin orange and a hint of toffee but brightly focused. The palate has notes of exotic spices, fragrant and delicate, rich fig and quince, lemon jelly and a hint of salted caramel, before decisive acid pushes through. Price for a half bottle.

(2026) This Nahe sweet Riesling from 60-year-old vines finished a marvellous dinner in style. Wax and paraffin initially, a lemon jelly hint of sweetness and richness, some sweet, fat lemon. The palate is medium-rich, not at all heavy, more of a crystalline, spun sugar lightness. Lovely balance with the keen acid core but orange, citrus and that light sugar delicacy. Price quoted at time of review is for a 37.5cl half bottle.

(2025) Note that at time of review this wine, supplied to me as a £15.99 sample by Laithwaites, was priced down to just £8.99 when I checked their website. It is an unusual botrytis-affected Verdicchio from the rolling hills of Italy’s Marche region on the Adriatic. Unfortunately the reason the price cut was soon obvious: with it already having eight years in bottle, it is on the oxidised and Sherried side of mature - at least my bottle was. On a positive note, if you can imagine a fino Sherry but with a thwack of sweetness, that's what you will get, but not the Sauternes lookalike as suggested by Laithwaites description of "honey, candied apricot and orange." Price for 50cls.

(2025) Well, this is utterly gorgeous. Pouring a glowing, lightly burnished gold, the heady aromas encompass barely sugar and exotic apricot and mango, but so much honeyed, lightly truffly botrytis character too. Rich but agile in the mouth, it has weight and texture but such clarity, the fully sweet and luscious tropical fruit with candied glacé oranges and mandarins, and a pitch-perfect balance in the almost endless finish. What a treat. Many stockists have this only by the case at time of review, and many in-bond only, but Brunswick is one showing the wine by the bottle.

(2025) From and estate in Piedmont that farms some of the region's steepest vineyards, this is 100% Moscato in a half bottle size. Harvested around one month later than normal, and with a portion of grapes dried on rush mats where they lose 40% of fruit weight through evaporation, it is luscious and combines barley sugar and orange aromas, with Moscato's distinct floral element. 12 months ageing in small oak barrels has rounded out the creaminess on the palate, where this sweet wine retains enough bright acidity to balance nicely. There aren't many sub-£10 wines around made with this complexity of process.

(2025) Named after Anges Seifried, this is always a treat of a moderately priced dessert wine, fully luscious and sweet with a candied fruit quality, and yet nimble with its slicing core of citrus acidity keeps things fresh on the palate. The honey and lime of the nose translates to a delicate, fully sweet but light palate, shimmering acidity prolonging the finish. Price for a half bottle.

(2024) Pantelleria is a small Italian island off of the coast of north Africa where Zibibbo, aka Muscat, grows in black volcanic soil. This is a typically golden/amber sweet wine with rich aromas of barley sugar and honey, dried apricot and fig, a depth of sultana too from these dried 'passito' grapes. The vanilla and white chocolate elegance of the palate is underpinned by a burgeoning spicy and deeply fruity richness, a sensation of toastiness (though it does not see barrel) completes a sumptuous but fresh picture.

(2024) 100% Furmint, this is fully sweet Tokaji, but in a lighter style, bottled with 131g/l of residual sugar. It is made from late-harvested rather than Botrytis-affected grapes and sees a little ageing under flor. Only 15% was fermented in barrel, the rest in tank, and the blend was matured for two years in seasoned barriques. Golden coloured and lush on the nose with apricot and barley sugar, a hint of mint or bergamot in there too. In the mouth it has a flowing texture rather than the somewhat thicker Aszu style, with plenty of toffeed, spiced orange sweetness and really nicely fresh and zipping citrus acidity that cleanses and propels the finish.

(2024) Redolent of acacia honey, this is fabulous stuff with 156g/l of residual sugar. A blend of 56% Furmint and 44% Hárslevelü, it spent two years in barriques, 25% of which were new. Such glycerine-rich aromas blending barley sugar and orange with vanilla and the dry, smoky, leaf-tea character of the Botrytis. In the mouth it is unctuous and rich without being too thick, and the core of shimmering lemon acidity that runs like a spine into the long, tapering, sweet peaches and cream finish is fabulous.