Wine and Chocolate Main
	Sweet Surprises: Wine and Chocolate Matching
	Australian Stickies
	Sherry
	Tawny Port
	Vin Santo

Domaine du Mas Blanc Banyuls Rimage 2000
90 Points, $36
Technique: Fortified

Banyuls is a fortified wine made in several styles, much like Port. The appellation lies in the Roussillon region, where France meets the Mediter-ranean coast and Spain. The region's schist soils also compare with those of the Douro regions. Maury, also in Roussillon, makes similar wines.

Although similar to Vintage Port, this Rimage is made primarily from Grenache (95 percent) with Carignane, Syrah and Mourvèdre. By law, grapes harvested for Banyuls must contain 254 grams of sugar per liter. (Collioure, a separate appellation, makes table wines from the same area.) Domaine du Mas Blanc harvests by hand, destems the grapes, then stops the fermentation by adding neutral grape spirits. The wine then macerates with the skins for three weeks before being aged in tanks.

The aging is important. Rimage, in order to preserve its fresh fruit character, does not have any contact with oxygen. "Banyuls is more fragile than Vintage Port," states vigneron Jean-Michel Parcé of Domaine du Mas Blanc. It is generally bottled after a year, but if the pure, primary fruit aromas of raspberry and cherry have evolved into dried fruit flavors, Parcé designates the wine for a style of Banyuls other than Rimage.