Berserkers,
Port wine gets all the love from fortified wine drinkers but the French aren’t exactly slouches at making the stuff. They make quite a few of them and the one all Port lovers should try is a Ratafia. Here’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had:
VILMART & CIE. RATAFIA
SUMMARY: Complex and flavorful fortified wine bursting with fruit flavor and bracing acidity. Port lovers should enjoy.
The wine is a pale straw gold in the glass. High heat on the nose with an odd aroma of a lemon drop candy. The nose’s simplicity and heat belie the complexity on the palate. Sweet baked apples are followed by orange marmalade, lemonade, butter, ginger and black pepper spice that pricks the tongue, a little rancio and then a bracing acidity that rivals a German Riesling. Really complex stuff and that bracing acidity is so surprising it genuinely makes me wonder how other fortified wines are unable to achieve it. Surprisingly light-bodied given the high heat and 18% ABV. Really delicious stuff and finely crafted.
Ratafia is a protected French designation wine that is made in the Champagne region by fortifying Champagne must with Fine de Champagne spirit. The Vilmart Ratafia is 100% Pinot Noir grapes from a Premier Cru vineyard in Rilly-La-Montagne which is then aged for 5 years in barrel.
ive never heard of this bottling. very cool! its a still wine correct?
Nice bottle. Ratafia isn’t a protected designation. It’s made many places, including here.
Matt, ratafia is still. Juice from wine grapes fortified with a brandy or spirit of some sort. Much more delicate & less alcoholic than a port or similar. 16-18% alc is typical. I have a few different bottles. Food wise, I think it matches with a bit more too.
I don’t have the skill to say this without sounding remarkably derogatory or even sexist, but in my experience those who find port too strong will gravitate towards Ratafia with abandon.
While ratafia is not protected, “ratafia de Champagne” has been protected since 2015.
I thought I’d had everything from Vilmart. Where does one find this?
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This is a still wine. Ratafia is indeed protected designation as long as it comes specifically from the Champagne region of France. Sorry, guess I wasn’t clear in my first post. To earn the designation, all ingredients must hail from the Champagne region without exception.
I tried this at Vilmart and bought a few bottles. An excellent wine.
Good to know. Will have to seek it out. Vilmart is my favorite Champagne by a mile.
Ratafia is exceptionally hard to find in the U.S. and impossible in Texas. In France with friends, Ratafia often becomes before the meal and it is no stranger after the meal.
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