It's served as an aperitif with ice cubes

Vega Sicilia Unico: its name is misleading. This wine is not of Sicilian but with Spain, in the Ribera Del Duero region exactly. It is here that Eloy Leconda, in 1864, creates the vineyards planting the first foot of cabernet sauvignon, malbec, merlot and pinot noir. Other local varieties such as tinto fino or la Ribera tempranilla have since added the calcareous lands. Had willingness to wine, it is certainly no doubt that its establishment would be today ranked among the most prestigious in the world. Member since 2000 in the wine very closed circle of the Primum Familiae Vini consisting of only twelve families of wine, this bodega produces among other things, its 250 hectares of operation, the Vega Sicilia Unico, a cuvée attention by professionals and amateurs from around the world. Here, nothing is left to chance. The yield per hectare very low - often synonymous of quality s ' student barely 22 hectolitres. In the larger Bordeaux châteaux, he achieved twice. The vine is auscultée throughout the year and each foot provides that two kilos of grapes. On harvesting only when the alcoholic degree of bays 13 degrees. And once harvested by hand, clusters are under high protection and deposited gently above the tanks. It does not take the risk of harming the fruit. The wine then grows in containers (sometimes barrels, sometimes wrath) manufactured by Coopers of the House. While most red wines age 12 months, or even between eighteen and twenty-four months for the greatest Bordeaux bottles, the Unico continues his education at least seven years. In a splendid chai of impeccable cleanliness to the heady aromas, it is then bottled and leaves to rest two years (three for the magnums). Today, vintage 1999 is for sale. Cut to defy time, this wine off standard offers a length in the mouth long.

In France, are not well known port. It's served as an aperitif with ice cubes. It remains ordinary wine while he has so much more to offer. The Anglo-Saxons are appetite, especially for vintage portos. They understood that the vintage porto is a beautiful wine, equal to the larger red or white wines. If all the beautiful houses of the Douro in produce with more or less success, it is a particularly popular with the oenophiles: Quinta Do Noval. This beautiful property, close to the charming village of Pinhao, dominates the Douro River. On the 70 hectares of vines, only 2.5 are reserved to develop a confidential nectar, the Nacional. The old elderly non-grafted vines of several tens of years give a best result. Everything is made to the former. The harvested grapes are deposited in a lagare, kind of small chest in granite. There, in a festive atmosphere with Orchestra, the pickers move to trample the grapes barefoot. They dance in the morning to evening, moving taking care not to forget any space. Then, the juice is collected, transferred (it adds alcohol) and then high in old barrels for two years before be bottled. In 1931, Noval was one of the three quintas to declare a vintage. The vintage if prove exceptional, "surely the greater", according to Christian Seely, the current President of the property. Reputation was made. Since then, the rigor to this plot of land allows beautiful years out wines of long guard. Just taste the 1963 to understand that time is not taken. This year, is the 2003 that you can buy. With its inimitable taste good ripe cherry and Red compotés fruit, all identified by a wonderful freshness, it can be consumed right now. Nevertheless, it would be preferable to remember 15 years. The fans know it.

The current reputation of this super Tuscan, Sassiscaia, is such that the Italian Government granted recently its own name. In France, it is the same for a few rare vineyards very reputable whose parcel of Romanée-Conti in Burgundy. However, nothing was acquired when the marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, in the early 1940s moved with his wife next to the small Tuscan village of Bolgheri, an area deserted, not really conducive to agriculture or the vine. But since that he is a student, the marquis has only an idea in mind: to make "wine". Taste from naturally to the great médocains, he decided to plant cabernet sauvignon mainly, but also of the cabernet franc family lands that traditionally were grown in this region Aboriginal, sangiovese and nebbiolo grape. Accustomed to local and light wines, public sulking too austere wine to the tight frame. Production is consumed exclusively in the field and the surplus patient cellar. Many years later, the time is his work and wine says his personality. In 1968, his reputation became world. Today, leader of Italian wines, the field of Tenuta San Guido continues his studious work. It has become a reference. It must be said that the wine is incredibly fine, never marked by the wood despite a twenty-four months raising (twelve is average). A fine tannic frame, this wine, by present black fruit, the aromas of spices and smoked notes, is not indifferent. If the 68 vintage is found today (almost $ 2,000 bottle 75 cl), the 1985 is a great success as are the 1999 and 2001.

In the world of the great sweet wines, the wine of Constance met now great sauternes. Fans enjoy this delicate wine with the scents of pine with a slightly smoked final which conceals not the freshness of muscat. Favourite wine of Napoleon which prevailed in his luggage during his exile in St. Helena, the Klein Constantia wine estate located in one of the wettest corner of Cape Peninsula is the oldest in South Africa since it dates from the mid-17th century. Throughout its history, the wine of Constance was at the table of the great of this world, poétisé by Dickens, Baudelaire, Huysmans. He disappeared from the festivities before rise from its ashes the 1980s with the winemaker Ross Gower. Above all, investors Duggie and Lowell Jooste, determined to restore its letters of nobility, several clones of muscat-foot imported from France in 1656 by Governor Jan van Riebeeck. Today, this raisined grapes (matured in the extreme) concentrated in its bays need sugar because it enjoys a microclimate wetted by the marine influence of the False Bay. Three or four weeks before the (entirely manual) harvesting, all leaves of the vine are removed to allow the fruit optimum solar exposure. Once the harvest is carried out, the livestock lasts four long years in old barrels having seen several wines to not afforested beverage. Each year thousands of bottles of 50 cl 15 confidential production is fully reserved by the best agents and wine merchants in the world.

Were often dubbed American wines "wines of the new world." It's a little early qualification, especially for this vineyard located on the heights of the Santa Cruz mountains, about 100 kilometres from San Francisco. The first grape leaves appear in 1886 and the first bottle in 1892. The period of prohibition (1920-1933) marks the decline of this operation and the second world war the con - damned forever. At least the thought before that teachers of University and non-wine, lover of Bacchus, decide to revive him at the end of the 1940s. But it is Paul Draper, in 1967, a philosopher who wrote his most beautiful lines. He decided to be the most natural wine. Well before that organic agriculture is to fashion as today, it raises its vines planted terrace without addition of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. To the former, he relies today to his memory and not to a computer to achieve his assemblages of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot. With aged plants on average more forty years and the relatively high altitude (800 metres), the wine dé-passe rarely 14 degrees. If the recent vintages are remarkable, is try all similarly to procure the 1995 or 1997. They are worthy of the great bordeaux longevity, expressed much finesse with a length in the mouth carrying the amateur to far away.