Best Wines for Dessert to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth
For those who love sweets, there are so many options to try. The number of desserts that exist in this world is endless. But for those who like their alcohol just as much, dessert wines are for those people.
Today we learn about dessert wines. How they’re made, and how many different types there are. We will also be looking at some dessert wine recommendations by the end. So, bring out those wine glasses because we’re going on a wine journey. Let’s go!
What Are Dessert Wines?
Wines are alcoholic beverages made from special grapes. The characteristic of a wine is to take on the flavor of the grapes that they are made from. Wines are also aged before they are consumed, sometimes for months. Some of the more expensive wines are aged for years. The more it is aged, the richer the flavors become.
Dessert wines are a special type of wine characteristically sweet in nature. They are consumed in small amounts as you would do with a glass of scotch. But how is this wine made? What is the procedure behind it? Let’s see to that.
How Dessert Wine Is Made?
To make the perfect dessert wine, you need the sweetest grapes. These cannot be just any other grapes. Grapes used for making sweet wine are grown in specialized vineyards. The process of making sweet wine follows the traditional method of making regular wine. But there are some differences which result in a sweeter taste.
Wine making process usually includes two fermentation processes. During the second fermentation, the yeast converts all the grape sugars into alcohol. In order to make sweet wine, the second fermentation process needs to be stopped. There are several methods of doing this.
One way is to cool down the wine significantly. This stops the chemical reaction which turns grape sugar into alcohol. This is done when the sweet wine is being made in large batches and it’s easier to control the temperature.
Another method is by adding brandy to it. This substitutes the grape sugars that were to be converted to alcohol. It results in a rich flavored sweetened wine that preserves the original sweetness of the grapes. The additional brandy also adds a very nice flavor.
You can easily understand that the second method is not feasible for commercially produced dessert wine. As such it’s reserved only for when small batches of the wine are made.
Types of Dessert Wine
On the market, there are several hundred kinds of dessert wines available. There are also many popular brands for it. But you can categorize all of those wines into 5 main types. Depending on how the wine is made and its characteristics, this categorization is done.
These are the 5 main dessert wine types that we will be looking into today.
Sparkling Dessert Wine
This variety of sweet wine is for those who like a bit of sweetness to their drink, but don’t want the sweetness to overpower the other subtle flavors. This is achieved by inducing carbonation into the drink.
Dessert wine like this is made under very specific temperature and pressure conditions to maintain that bubbly texture. The carbonation also induces acidity, which counteracts some of the overpowering sweetness that dessert wine possesses.
Sweet Red Wine
Red wines are some of the most commercially available wines all around the world. They are currently on the decline and all you can seem to find are the cheap ones. But there are a couple of decent red wine options that are made specially in Italy. These are definitely worth checking out.
Fortified Wine
The process of making fortified wine is by adding grape brandy during the fermentation process. Wines of this kind are thus referred to as “boozy dessert wine” due to its high alcohol content. Normally fortified wine has around 17-20% alcohol in it. They are also dessert wines with a higher shelf life.
Lightly-Sweet Dessert Wine
Dessert wines that are lightly sweet are really refreshing and bear the fruity flavors well. These are dessert wines that are best enjoyed with spicy foods. Food belonging to Indian or Southeast Asian cuisine taste even better when paired with lightly-sweet dessert wine. It’s best enjoyed when you open it up close to the vintage date, so you can enjoy the freshness that way.
Richly Sweet Dessert Wine
This is the highest quality dessert wine you can possibly find around you. It’s made with the highest quality grapes and handled with utmost care. Some of these wines are preserved over 50 years. The sweetness and acidity preserve the fresh flavor of the wine. There are several methods to produce this richly sweet dessert wine and depending on the method used, the quality changes greatly.
Recommendations for Dessert Wine
Now let’s take a look at some recommendations for dessert wine. Like we said before, there are different kinds of dessert wine available on the market. So, narrowing it down to just a few was quite the challenge. But we managed to do it and here are our top picks.
- Fontodi Vin Santo 2007 (Average Price: $95);
- Graham’s Six Grapes (Average Price: $21);
- Blandy’s 10-Year Madeira Rich Malmsey (Average Price: $32);
- Quinta de la Rosa Tawny Port (Average Price: $24);
- Vidal-Fleury Beaumes de Venise Muscat 2013 (Average Price: $20);
- Accordini Recioto Classico Acinatico 2013 (Average Price: $40);
- Dr. Loosen Demi Sec 2015 (Average Price: $41);
- Fuleky Pallas Tokaji Late Harvest (Average Price: $25).
Wrapping Up
Making dessert wines requires time, patience, and dedication. If everyone could have done it, they’d do it. But you need to know the exact process to get your desired product. Wine making already has a long and rich history and it gets even richer and sweeter with dessert wine as a part of it.
That’s all about dessert wines. If you fancy any of the wines on our list, we suggest giving them a try. There are some reasonably priced ones, so you don’t need to worry about spending too much to sample some sweet, delicious wine.