Quady Essensia 2014

From 100% Orange Muscat with an aroma reminiscent of Orange Blossom and Apricot, and a lingering refreshing aftertaste, Essensia is used as a dessert accompaniment or a dessert in itself.

The Orange Muscat grape variety is little known. It was once grown in France and there are some small plantings in Italy and Australia. The wine is lightly fortified to about 15% alcohol and aged for 3 months in French Oak. The wine tastes balanced, like the taste of fresh fruit.

Andrew Quady started making wine in the mid 1970's. Working for a major wine company he moonlighted to produce his own ports and in 1980 experimented with Orange Muscat, ultimately making an amazing floral fruit character wine that he called Essensia. In 1990, Quady decided to produce a new type of dessert wine, light, delicate and very refreshing. He tasted Orange Muscat juice as it was turning into wine. When the juice was just on the verge - halfway between wine and grape juice, he bottled a test batch. The wine tasted wonderful, but the alcohol was only 4% (most wines are at least 11%). Using sterile filtration to prevent refermentation, he bottled it anyway and named the new creation Electra.