Dolce Vita - Late Harvest Vidal Blanc

Sweet and fruity, Dolce Vita is made from the Vidal Blanc grape harvested in late November after the leaves have fallen and the fruit has acquired a raisiny taste. Dolce Vita has hints of raisin, pear, and citrus. Serve chilled at 45 degrees.

Vintner's Comment:

Story goes...I forgot to harvest our Vidal Blanc one season and ended up with a late harvest vidal blanc that I started to call Dolce Vita... just kidding! Dolce Vita in Italian means sweet life - which really embodies this wine, it's definitely a dessert wine or after dinner sipper.

Our Dolce Vita Late Harvest is made with our Vidal Blanc, which is ideal due to Vidal's thick and resistant skin, great for autumn entering into the colder season. It has a distinct raisiny taste and amber color typical of most late harvest wines. The wine is naturally more amber or brownish in tone. Which for normal wines can be a sign of over-oxidation or aging, but with late harvest wines it's another story entirely! Because the grapes are left on the vine until they're like raisins, literally raisins!

It's like Amarone wine, where they put it in a drier with air at a certain temperature, and the water from the grape evaporates but it concentrates the sugar, to get 28-29% sugar. But If you ferment all that sugar, it's too high in alcohol, so we keep it at around 12-13%.

Vidal is light, but if you take our late harvest Vidal Blanc and place it next to our regular Vidal Blanc, it's significantly darker. This is due to oxidation. Not of the wine itself, but of the skin pigments and pulp as its sitting in the sun, drying on the vine for longer periods of time. Then we press them to give a higher sugar concentration, for plenty of residual sugar but with a good alcohol content to boot. And that typical amber color of late harvest wine is because it's much more concentrated.

Awards :

2013:
Bronze - International Eastern Wine Competition

2012:
Silver - Finger Lakes International Wine Competition

2011:
Bronze - Finger Lakes International Wine Competition
Bronze - New Jersey Wine Competition

2010:
Silver - Finger Lakes International Wine Competition
Silver - International Eastern Wine Competition
Silver - New Jersey Wine Competition

2009:
Bronze - Finger Lakes International Wine Competition
Bronze - Grand Harvest Wine Competition
Bronze - LA International Wine Competition
Bronze - New Jersey Wine Competition

2008:
Bronze - New Jersey Wine Competition