A relative recently gifted us a bottle of wine. Buying another bottle ourselves is out of the question as the wine is illegal to sell here. Is there some way of finding a similar-tasting wine? I know very little about wines so I’m not sure what information would be useful in trying to find a match.
Any decent shop should be able to point you at a good bottle if you bring them a decent description of what you had.
What does it say on the label? What region was the wine grown in, and what varietals of grape? If you can’t decipher the label, you can post a photo of it.
What counts as a “decent shop”? I’m pretty sure this is a dessert wine, and I’ve never been to a wine shop that had more than a couple varieties of dessert wine.
Because of the country of origin?
Hm, it’s all super subjective. But I’d say anywhere where the wine selection outnumbers the liquor selection is a good start. Regularly hosting tastings is also a good sign. At the end of the day it really just boils down to the employees: whether they have a knowledgeable buyer and knowledgeable floor staff.
Telemark is right about posting the label here, but - and not to be a jerk or anything - have you tried googling it? There are websites out there that post detailed reviews and descriptions of just about everything under the sun. Once you’ve got that, it shouldn’t be too hard to find similar bottles.
You could try the Vivino app. You take a phone pic of the label, and the app tries to find a match in its database. If it matches the label, it calls up the wine and gives you information about it. If you then rate it, the app tries to suggest other similar wines. Or you can use the provided tasting information (rating scales on dryness, tannins, etc.) to look for other wines with the same or similar profiles. All the information in the app is crowd-sourced, so you’re working with “average” palates, not the taste preferences of professionals who may or may not like what you like.
In my experience, that is a skill that requires formal training and a glossary as thick as a phone book.
Grape, country, region, year, estate. Give us something to work with!
I think it depends on the palate involved. Most casual wine drinkers (myself included) only really notice and care about broad notes.
Is there a reason you’re withholding what the wine was? I mean, that would help tremendously. For dessert wines, the first thing I think of is Tokaji, Sauternes, and various Austrian/Central European Eiswein. Was it white? Was it on the thicker side mouthfeel-wise?
Well, yes and no. The problem is that it’s a wine from Crimea that is labelled as being from Russia. Following Russia’s claimed annexation of Crimea, the EU introduced a law that says it’s legal to sell Crimean wines here only if they’re labelled as being from Ukraine. Obviously that’s not the case with the wine we got, and for all I know the EU rules have changed again this year to ban all Crimean wines regardless of how they’re labelled.
There’s a veritable novel printed on the back label in a microscopic font, which I’m not going to transcribe. The very first word, though, is “2019”, which I’m betting is the year of production.
The front label also has a lot of text that’s too small for me to read, but the parts I can read are as follows:
No—I had the front label all typed up and ready to post in response to @Telemark when I got called away from the computer.
Maybe it was technically “white”, but it was actually a medium brown colour. Definitely on the thicker side in terms of how it felt in the mouth. The flavour was very much like drinking liquid raisins.
I can’t use the app since I don’t have a smartphone. But I see there’s a Vivino website that has a web page for the wine. Can I create an account on the website and rate it and get recommendations that way?
Maybe a white or tawny port? The ABV is a little on the low side, though.
ETA: Found the winery.
Further ETA: МУСКАТ БЕЛЫЙ means “White Muscat.” So not a port. КРАСНОГО КАМНЯ is “Red Stone.”
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/massandra+collection+white+muscat+crimea/1/usa-wa-y
ETA: The link is to an expensive 2006 but it shows a label written in English. “Muscat White Massandra”
You might try a Tokaji Aszú from Hungary. That flavor profile fits, and it is amber in color. I’m not a wine connoisseur, but I’m fairly familiar with those wines. Without going too much into Tokaji Aszú wines, I would suggest trying one with the number 5 or 6 on it. (That number refers to sweetness, or rather how much of late-harvest botrytized grape goes in the blend; the range is 3-6, then there’s Eszencia which is even sweeter.) There is some white muscat – like your wine – usually in the blend, though the main grape is furmint.
I’m reasonably sure that’ll get you in the ballpark. Something like this.
Another one that may be a closer match, being made from muscat grapes, is passito di panelleria. I’m not really familiar with it, but I read around trying to find something that I think is probably late harvest or, in this case, dried in the sun to concentrate sugars before being pressed. I have no idea how available it is, as I’ve never specifically looked for it. Something like Tokaji, though, I could usually find at a well-stocked wine store.
https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-passito+di+pantelleria
Vinsanto is another one that seems to fit the bill.
We pick up a bottle of aszú 4 or 5 puttonyos every time we visit my relatives in Dunaújváros, but it’s never tasted much like this Crimean wine. We could try the passito di panelleria or vinsanto, though.