Vin doux naturel

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The sweet, fortified dessert wine has a very old history, originating in the French Roussillon in the eastern Pyrenees. The invention goes back to the famous doctor and scholar Arnaldus de Villanova (1240-1311), who experimented with making brandy and wine on the Knights Templar estate around 1285. He discovered that spriting (adding alcohol) stops fermentation and preserves residual sugar in the wine. This was the birth of the VDN, which was popular in the Middle Ages. When the Kingdom of Majorca (now Roussillon) became part of France in 1659, the Sun King Louis XIV (1638-1715) served this wine to his guests in Versailles. The philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) and the later US President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) also raved about it.

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Vin doux naturel

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Vin doux naturel

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