Dessert Wines – A Pleasant Surprise

I have enjoyed a good glass of table wine many times with my meals. Wine tasting parties have always been a favorite pastime, especially when combined with cheese. No, I am not from Wisconsin so I do not rate a “cheese head hat”. Recently, after a pleasant dinner party with good friends, I was introduced to a new class of vintages that I had never tried before. The dessert wine I was served turned out to be the fitting end to a fabulous evening.

DESSERT WINES - A PLEASANT SURPRISE

Grapes used for these type of wines are not harvested in the same fashion and timing as your typical table wine grapes. The goal is to increase the sugar content of the grape by mainly harvesting them later in the season. Often a noble rot forms on the grapes before harvest. In another dessert type named ice wine, grape harvest is delayed until the first freeze. Some times these wines are developed by pausing the fermentation process.

There are several types of grapes primarily used in the making of dessert wines. Semillon grapes are commonly used in Sauternes that often smell like the wildflowers where it is grown. Muscat grapes may remind you of orange and honey. Fendant and Chasselas are typically found primarily in Switzerland. Spicy Gewurztraminer wines are good tasting and seem to age well. Fortified wines like sherry, port and Madeira are made differently than your typical dessert wine, but are also a great choice and considered in many circles to be “honorary … Read More ...

Dessert Wine Glasses and What You Need to Know

When people hear the phrase ‘dessert wine glasses’ what first comes into mind is a regular wine goblet with some ice cream shoved into it. This couldn’t be further from the truth, because as I’ll be writing soon, these wine glasses have nothing whatsoever to do with dessert!

Traditionally these types of goblet are filled with sweet liquor such as sherry or port. Describing them isn’t too difficult and they have the appearance of a champagne flute in the miniature with the main bowl of the around the size of two shot glasses. These types of wine goblet aren’t used that often anymore but they have very traditional routes. After a particularly big meal, perhaps a dinner party with guests or just a Christmas lunch to help the food settle these would be whipped out a long with a bottle of sherry or port. From here people would move to the lounge or living room with their sweet liquor in hand.

With their dessert wine glasses in hand conversation would flow much more smoothly, and the sumptuous meal would be able to settle. I really do think this makes a great gift for a married couple or for a boyfriend and girlfriend. Imagine you and your wife receiving a crystal pair of them along with a bottle of port to go with them. They’re a gift that isn’t particularly expensive and yet speak class with every sweet drop. Not only that, but they’re a gift that’s actually useful and will … Read More ...