On one of our first trips to Jones Liquors in Brownsville, I asked about ice wines hoping to restock some of the ones we drank through last summer before moving to Brownsville. While Mike Jones didn't have any ice wines on hand, he did recommend the Merryvale Antigua Dessert Wine from Napa Valley. The Antigua is a fortified Muscat, which I had never tried before. He suggested we have it on a special occasion. One year later, we finally decided to open the bottle to drink a bit with some baklava we picked up from Feldman's Market Center in Brownsville.This dessert wine is not for wimps. The Antigua is made from California Muscat de Frontignan, and it is fortified with California brandy, which gives it the complex flavor and aroma. The wine is aged for 11 years in French oak, which helps give the wine its beautiful gold-amber color.
This wine looks like liquid gold. If you aren't paying attention, you might mistake the wine bottle for a mini-bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. If the color wasn't enough of a giveaway that this wine is unique, it also comes in an eye-catching black box.
The aroma and taste of orange peel, almonds, caramel, apricot, and hazelnut complimented our baklava perfectly. The thickness and richness of the wine was something that I had not expected, and it was very similar to drinking a Port, almost like syrup. Oddly enough, despite the thicker syrupy texture, the Merryvale was also refreshing, and had great balance and a very long finish. The complexity and thickness of the wine made me want to sip it slowly. This isn't a wine that you want to drink quickly, and with its 18% alcohol content, drinking it too quickly may cause problems the next day.
This is an outstanding dessert wine and due to its flavors and quality, can be a dessert on its own, which is rare to say about any dessert wine I've tried so far.
Merryvale Antigua Dessert Wine can be purchased at Jones Liquors in Brownsville and costs about $35. More information can be found at http://www.merryvale.com/
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