Types Of Dessert Wine

There are many styles and types of dessert wine. All are sweeter than traditional wine.

Dessert wine is meant to be enjoyed follow the main course of a meal. Dessert wines are too sweet to drink with a main course, although some people enjoy them before a meal as an aperitif.

Like other wine, a dessert wine is defined by the type of grape it's made from, where it's grown, and how it's produced.

The best dessert wine will have all the characteristics that wine lovers look for - inviting aromas, complex flavors, velvety textures and flavorful, memorable finishes.

What makes dessert wine sweet?

The earliest dessert wines were often sweet because they had not completely fermented. The sweetness of today's dessert wines is often a result of their naturally occurring sugars (glucose and fructose), which increase the longer a grape ripens on the vine.

The residual sugars in dessert wine can also be the result of a freeze late in the harvest (as is the case with ice wine), or a mold infection ("noble rot").

Another method used in the creation of dessert wine is the addition of brandy which stops fermentation.

The most well known dessert wine from Canada and Germany is their ice wine.

France produces many fine dessert wines, their most famous is Sauternes.

Italy also produces a wide variety of fine dessert wines.

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