[February 10, 2023 - Mark Silverstone]
Dessert wines are a broad category of wines – their sweet flavors make them very desirable and versatile. Dessert wines can be enjoyed on their own after a meal as a digestif, or paired with cheese, pastries, chocolate, etc. Make sure the dessert wine is sweeter than the food paired with it for maximum enjoyment.
Sweet wine comes from extra sweet grapes. To make a sweet wine, the fermentation is stopped before the yeast converts all grape sugars into alcohol. There are several ways to stop fermentation, including super cooling the wine or adding brandy to it. The end result is a rich wine sweetened with natural grape sugars. There are hundreds of different types of dessert wines, but most fall into five main styles; sparkling, light & sweet, rich & sweet, sweet red and fortified. More than half of our CWA member wineries produce some form of dessert wine including Aloria, Black Sheep, Bodega Del Sur, Boyle MacDonald, Brice Station, Gossamer, Hatcher, Indian Rock, Ironstone, Jazz Cellars, Milliaire, Stevenot, Tanner, Val du Vino and Vina Moda.
Wines that are perceived as sweet can be created through certain natural processes, like harvesting high-sugar grape varieties later in the season at peak ripeness. Other techniques involve drying out the grapes on a straw mat to raisinate, allowing grapes to freeze on the vine, or permitting them to become infected with the Botrytis cinerea fungus. In each of these methods, the grape is dehydrated and the remaining sugars concentrate as water is removed.
Fortified wines become sweet when a spirit is added to the base wine during fermentation, killing off yeast and leaving behind a higher percentage of unfermented residual sugar. In another technique called chaptalization, sugar from external sources are added to the grape must, while süssreserve is a process in which sweet, unfermented grape juice from the initial pressing is reserved, then added back to the fermented wine before bottling to increase sugar levels.
With any dessert winemaking method, some sugar is allowed to remain at the end of the winemaking process, so the wine tastes sweet.
All wine starts with ripe grapes that are full of sugar and natural acidity. During the winemaking process, yeast is added, and the yeast eats the sugar in the grape juice, converting it into alcohol in a process called fermentation.
With most wines, the yeast eats all the sugar in the grape juice, so the final wine tastes dry, and it has a moderate amount of alcohol, usually 10 to 16 percent. With dessert wines such as Moscato or Brachetto, the winemaker stops the fermentation early, so the wine tastes sweet. These sparkling Italian dessert wines also have a lower amount of alcohol, closer to 8 to 11 percent.
In other parts of the world, such as Italy, where Vin Santo and Passito di Pantelleria are ripe grapes are laid out on straw mats or hung on special racks to dry out. These wines are also called passito, which means raisin wines or straw wines, a reference to the straw mats they were traditionally dried on.
Check out these tasting note highlights from some of our CWA wineries to tempt your palate.
Vintage Port-style fortified wine, aged 3.5 years in French oak - Explosive flavors of raspberry liqueur, vibrant dark cherry, clove spice and decadent toasted walnut…
Rich gold color, aromas and flavors of vanilla with hints of orange on the finish – easy to sip…
Soft notes of vanilla from the heavy toast American oak bourbon barrel bring this mature brandy to life…
Notes of caramel and dark chocolate…
Nutty nuances, dried apricots and spiced toffee aromatics…
Intense, seductive aromas of raisin, coffee, toasted hazelnut and prune...
This port has a full bodied palate of raspberry and cranberry preserves with spice notes of caramel and toast…
Aromas of blueberries and blackberries combine with spicy aromas of cinnamon and vanilla. Flavors of raspberries and currants fill your mouth, and finishes with a long blackberry and spicy streak...
Intense bright ruby color, with a nose of fresh cranberry and cherry, a hint of bubble gum and earthy wet stone. On the pallet Jolly Rancher cherry candy, cranberry sauce and sweet tobacco. The wine is balanced and has very modest tannins…
You can directly link to winemaker notes and vintage descriptions of some of our Calaveras County dessert wines below. This Valentine's Weekend is the perfect time to explore dessert wines in Calaveras Wine Country!