MONBAZILLAC
The ultimate sweet wine
Monbazillac is the best-known sweet wine designation in the world. Monbazillac grapes are picked in stages to produce a very smooth sweet wine whose golden hue turns amber with age.
The wine exudes the aroma of honey and candied citrus (lemon, grapefruit), flowers (acacia), fruit (apricot, fig, plum, peach) and gingerbread. The most discerning wine lovers will adore it as much as us adventure seekers.
The ultimate sweet wine
produced every year
produced every year
History
The Saint Martin monks are to Monbazillac what the Tatin sisters are to the apple tart named after them. Whether it’s a happy coincidence or sheer carelessness, the very first sweet wine in this part of the vineyard came from an oversight. A combination of the busy monks neglecting their vines with the morning fog and hillside sunshine brought “botrytis cinerea”, also known as noble rot.
terroir
Since the AOC was created in 1936, the Monbazillac designation area has been cut off by the Dordogne Valley to the north. The vineyard begins on the first terraces of the left bank then climbs up steep north-facing hillsides from Bergerac to the little plateaus watching over the valley.
AOP Monbazillac
Grape varieties: Sauvignon, Sémillon, Muscadelle
Typicity: Monbazillac is picked by hand in a series of harvests to produce balanced fresh and fruity wine. There are two types of this wine:
- Classic Monbazillac, whose sugar content puts it in the first category for sweet wine. It is ideal as a pre-dinner drink or with certain dishes during a meal.
- Monbazillac “sélection de grains nobles” has an 85g/l sugar content and is made for tasting on its own or as a dessert wine. It has orange peel and candied fruit notes.
TASTING A
MONBAZILLAC wine
Pan-fried foie gras on toast with strawberry and rosemary jam
Périgord capon supreme with orange and chestnuts
Périgord walnut and chocolate crémeux
Strawberry and Périgord walnut frangipane tartlets
Foie gras and walnut bites, strawberry jam
Creamy chestnut and walnut tartlets
Périgord truffle Croque-Monsieur
