Ipsus DessertWine DOC: Pantelleria Passito (15%; www.Daquino.com; Moscato grapes) 2010: Deep golden/slight browning/burnished bronze color; very intense orangy/Muscat/cheap hair oil/Vitalis slight earthy complex beautiful nose; quite sweet intense Muscatty/orangy/Vitalis slight earthy slight oxidized/raisened flavor; very long intense sweet orangy/Vitalis/muscatty soft slight raisened finish; a terrific dessert Muscat at a stupid price. $10.00/500 ml (TJ)
A wee BloodyPulpit:
This Ipsus showed up on the shelf (previous vintage) at our local TraderJoe’s several yrs ago and I bought up most of the case. So when this new vintage reappeared, I had to try it. It’s a steal…I’m going back for more. A classic Passito w/ just enough raisened funkiness to make it interesting.
Tom
Nice catch, a great price for one of my favorite dessert wines, Passito di Pantelleria. When Wilma was doing her military runs with the airline to Sicily, she would also bring back two variations on the theme, one was called “Moscato d’Sicilia” and the other just “Zibibbo”. Today I think the Moscato DOC wine is called “Moscato di Pantelleria”. Anyway, all three versions were great, especially the one called “Tanit” after the Greek Goddess of love.
Dave,
I recall that zibibbo is the local name for Muscat of Alexandria. It doesn’t have the high-toned character of the Muscat a PetitGrains, but in
a Passito, that’s not what you’re looking for. Anyway, it’s an amazingly good wine at a great price. I wish they’d make more Passito wines
in Calif.
I went back to TraderJoe’s on Fri to get more. Of the original 12 btls, they were 10 remaining. One of the ladies in my group was in there looking
for the wine & I directed her to it, after her husband admonished her to stop in & get some afore I harvested it all.
We were both grabbing btls as fast as we could; Marie got 4 & I got 5. Some lady was standing there, watching the melee, and decided maybe
she should grab a btl as well. I severely scolded her for taking “my” btl, but she was not about to give it up. I was gonna ambush her in the
parking lot, but her husband was bigger than I, and I didn’t have my epee with me. Fortunately, they’re going to be ordering more & should be in next week. They have no
clue there at TraderJoe’s what a treasure they have there.
Tom
We have TJ here in DE but no alkee-haul in the store. Back in the day I used to travel to San Diego a lot on busyness and would always stop in the TJ there. My best score: 1993 Les Forts de Latour and 1993 Carruades de Lafite for $20 a bottle. dc.