Corney & Barrow 

Production is expensive and limited as the grapes don’t conform to a timetable. The Monbazillac harvest demands that pickers make several passages through the vines, to pick at the optimum moment. Harvests can stretch over two expensive months, during the most climatically variable times of the year. Bad weather or excessive humidity can easily swing the pendulum, with noble rot giving way to grey rot and thereby ruining the crop. Further expense lies in pitifully low yields since, after all, the process is all about evaporation.

When all goes well, Monbazillac produces stunning white dessert wine from Muscadelle, Sauvignon, and Semillon, wines which are exuberant and zesty, with hints of honey, citrus, orchard fruits and flowers. Muscadelle fares particularly well in Monbazillac.

Monbazillac provides an intriguing, lively and beautifully pitched alternative to Sauternes as either a dessert wine or, as is now increasingly fashionable, an accompaniment to foie gras, as well as blue cheeses, such as Roquefort.