Save Room for Dessert: A Guide to Wines for After Dinner

Technically, you can pair any sweet wine with dessert.

There are a few different categories of dessert wines: Sweet and sparkling, those using a specialized method to concentrate the sugar and juice of the grape, and fortified wines. Each are unique and delicious.

Sweet and sparkling, as well as fortified wines, both have their charms. But these can be topics for another day (and another article)!

Let’s talk about the remaining category – those using a specialized method to concentrate the sugar and juice to produce a luscious, mouth-filling dessert wine. These are the wines that get described by words such as: delicious, luscious, decadent, intense, rich, aromatic, profound.

What do you look for in such a dessert wine? You look for sweetness, you look for a luscious mouth feel, you look for concentration, and you look for good acid.

A good dessert wine should be fruity, concentrated, and lush, and finish with acid to clear the palate and ready your mouth for the next bite of dessert.

The wine should be as sweet or sweeter than the dessert. Otherwise, the wine will start to taste a little bitter. This is an important factor to consider when choosing which dessert wine to buy.

It also needs to have enough flavor that it will not be overpowered by the dessert.

These wines are typically sold in smaller bottles (e.g., 500 ml). Because of their intensity, a typical serving size is just a couple ounces (although they are so delicious, you will want more)! Serve with just a slight chill and enjoy.
There are multiple ways that are used to concentrate the sugar and flavor; whether on the vine and allowed to develop botrytis (or Noble Rot), frozen on the vine, allowed to raisinate in the sun or simply ripen for a longer time.

Let’s address each one!

Botrysized wines:

In these wines, the grapes are allowed to hang on the vines and (hopefully) develop Noble Rot. Noble Rot (aka Botrytis) is a special kind of fungus which, when it develops, covers the grapes with a gray mold which draws the water out of the grapes and concentrates the sugar, juice, and acid inside the grape.

As you can imagine, this is a difficult process. The conditions must be right to produce this type of fungus. The temperature needs to be within a certain range, the humidity also must be correct. The grapes must stay on the vine long enough for this to happen without developing any other strains of mold or disease. Botrytis is unique in that it produces flavors that harmonize with the grapes, unlike other molds.

In addition, only certain varieties of grapes are good candidates for dessert wines produced in this way. Some grapes are more susceptible to botrytis, and it helps if they are late-ripening, thin-skinned and capable of attaining high sugar levels. Aromatic and high-acid varieties also contribute to making good dessert wines, adding complexity while still maintaining a sugar/acid balance, which prevents the final wine from feeling too candied or cloying.

All the conditions must come together to make this happen in the vineyards. It doesn’t happen every year and may only affect a small portion of the vineyard - some bunches but not others, some grapes but not others. In years where there is little or no botrytis, these wines cannot be produced.

Should it be a good year, however, then the next step is to hand harvest only those grapes that are ready. This is a low yield, labor, and time intensive process. Botrytis affected grapes will shrivel as the mold punctures the skin and draws the water out. For harvest, the grapes must be picked by hand, berry by berry, choosing only those affected grapes. Because botrytis can spread through the vineyard unevenly, sometimes harvest can take place over multiple days over the course of weeks.

However, wines made using this process produce luscious, syrupy, fruity, and delicious wines with honeyed notes along with ginger and saffron.

Wines to look for that use this method include Sauternes or Barsac from France, Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese (Germany), Tokaji Aszú (Hungary). While each of these wines are produced using botrysized grapes, they differ from one another in subtle ways.

Tokaji Aszú, made in the Tokaj region of Hungary, is widely thought to be the first wine to be produced in this way. The typical grapes used in Tokaji Aszú are Furmint, Hárslevelü and Muscat Blanc á Petit Grains, but since 1990, three other grapes have been allowed ??(zéta, kövérszölö) but are used in only minor amounts.

In Tokaji Aszú, the shriveled grapes are crushed into a paste. The remaining grapes are picked separately and made into a base wine. The paste is then added to the base wine. The amount of paste added is measured in puttonyos. A puttony is a basket which was traditionally used to collect the shriveled grapes. One basket makes about 20 liters of paste, the more puttonyos added to the base wine then determined the final residual sugar of the wine. You will see the number of puttonyos as a designation on bottles of Tokaji Aszú, and although the measurement has now been divorced from the physical measurement of number of baskets, it is still a reflection of how sweet and rich the wine is.

Legendary sweet wines are also produced in France in the southern part of the region of Bordeaux, in 5 different communes, the most important of which are Sauternes and Barsac. The primary grapes used are Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Different from Tokaji Aszú, the grapes are not made into a paste but pressed directly. Because the grapes are so shriveled, this is a difficult, low yield process. The must is then transferred to oak barrels and allowed to ferment. Because the sugar concentration is so high, the fermentation can take up to a year, compared to the usual 2-4 weeks for a normal white wine. Fermentation is allowed to stop naturally when the alcohol content reaches a lethal level for the yeasts involved. But because the starting sugar content is so high, this usually leaves 10-15% residual sugar in wines.

In Germany, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines contain botrysized grapes to a certain degree. German wines are often characterized using two dimensions – ripeness and sweetness. In order of increasing ripeness, the designations are Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and Eiswein. There is also a designation of sweetness related to amount of residual sugar: Trocken (bone-dry), Halbtrocken or Feinherb (half-dry), Lieblich or Mild (some sweetness). However, once you get to Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese levels of ripeness, the wines contain botrysized grapes, and are quite rare and expensive. The leading grape is Riesling.

Ice Wines

In producing wines using this method, if done properly, the grapes are allowed to hang on the vines until the weather gets cold enough to freeze the water in the grapes. The freezing causes ice crystals to form in the grapes, which then gets separated out in the pressing process. This results in a pure, concentrated juice.

This is also a difficult process, and can only occur in years where the weather cooperates. The grapes need to ripen, and stay on the vines without developing any disease or mold long enough for the weather to turn cold enough to freeze the grapes. Harvest is often done at night (when the temperatures are low enough), by hand, picking only the highest quality grapes.

Certain grapes lend themselves better to this method, retaining enough acid to process produce a rich, fruity and pure wine. Typical grapes used are Riesling and Vidal, although many other grapes can be used.

Wines to look for that use this method will be called Ice Wine. Many producers, in order to be able to produce an ice wine type more consistently every year, will pick and freeze the grapes in a freezer prior to pressing. In those instances, the wine can no longer be called Ice Wine and will more likely be labeled as Iced Wine or something similar.

Look for Ice Wines from the Finger Lakes in NY State, as well as from the Niagara Peninsula in Canada. Eiswein is also produced in Germany and Austria.

Wines produced using this method have honeyed notes as well, but more purity of fruit than those using Noble Rot.

Passito (straw wines)

Traditionally known as straw wines, this style of dessert wine uses grapes that have been dried for anywhere from weeks to months. These wines got their name from the process used to dry the grapes – traditionally, the grapes were dried on straw mats in the warmest part of the house or winery, removing the water and concentrating the sugar and flavor.

The dried grapes are then pressed, fermented, and aged in barrel, producing a sweet, balanced wine.

Depending on the grapes used, these wines can also have more of a dried apricot, nutty and/or caramel character, along with the honeyed notes also characteristic to the other methods of production.

Typical wines using this process include Vin Santo di Montepulciano (traditionally from the Tuscany region of Italy-Trebbiano, Malvasia). It is also made in other regions of Italy using other grapes. Passito di Pantelleria is from the Italian island of Pantelleria using Muscat grapes and Recioto della Valpolicella is from Valpolicella, in the Veneto region of Italy (Corvina, Rondinella, Molinara).

Where to start tasting?

Examples of all these styles can be difficult to find due to the low yield nature of the process. These all pair nicely with cheeses (think Sauternes and blue cheese, fruity pastries, baklava, and other honey containing desserts, cheesecake).

Try these for a variety:

Mascaron Sauternes – this wine is predominantly Semillon grape, blended with Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle from the Bordeaux region in France. A bright golden color, there are aromas of quince, dried fig and apricot. Rich in the mouth with a complex finish with notes of honey and gingerbread.

Lamoreaux Landing Riesling Ice – golden raisin, apricot, and honey shine through on the palate. Made from Riesling grapes grown in the Finger Lakes.

Ben Rye Passito di Pantelleria – Made using Zibibbo grapes (aka Muscat of Alexandria) grown on the island of Pantelleria (southwest Sicily) in Italy. This wine has a rich bouquet with aromas of apricot and candied orange peel. The palate is fresh and intense with a long finish.

Fattoria del Cerro Vin Santo di Montepulciano – made using Trebbiano and Malvasia. This is gold in color, with copper reflections. A rich and concentrated nose of orange peel, acacia honey and walnut lead to a palate balanced between sweetness and acid, and a nutty finish.

Pergole Vece Recioto Della Valpolicella – made as a blend of Corvina, Oseleta, Rondinella, Croatina and Corvinone grapes, it has a ruby red color and a nose of dried fruit, forest floor, blueberry, and violets. Delicately sweet with balanced tannins, and a long, fresh finish.

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