Dessert wines are fascinating to me, not only for their scrumptious sweet tastes, but also for the many complicated and unusual ways in which they are made. Most, but not all dessert wines tend to be higher in alcohol than regular wines. This is due to the large amount of sugars in the fresh juice, the more sugar, the greater the final alcohol levels produced during fermentation.

In taste these wines have a bold array of flavors like honey, apricot, peach, tropical fruit, caramel, dates, raisins, citrus, berries, floral notes, and much more. In body they progress from thin, light and barely sweet; to syrupy thick, sugar bombs. In color they run the spectrum from pale white to deep gold and light rose to orange and deep red. In style they can be still wines, slightly fizzy, or super bubbly tongue tinglers.

I use the term dessert wine to describe all wines that are mid to high quality, sweet wines that tend to be drunk after dinner or with dessert, or more appropriately as dessert, since many sweet wines actually don't go well when paired with sweet foods. Sweet and dessert wines have been around since the early days of the Roman Empire, some say even longer. They may have been the first wines that traveled outside the region in which they were made. This is because many of them have higher alcohol levels, as well as the large amounts of sugars; both of which when combined help to make wines age and travel well.Technically, in the US a wine is classified as a dessert wine if it has an alcohol by volume (abv) level of 14%-24%, but this doesn't take into account the residual sugar levels (unfermented sugar, i.e. sweetness) of the wine, which is the other main thing in determining a dessert wine. There are some dessert wines which are sweet, but have very low alcohol levels of 5%-6% and aren't even technically allowed to be called wines due to such low % abv. Each dessert wine making style and region tends to have its own standards as to what sugar and alcohol levels the wine should have.

There are many styles of dessert wines and they are made all over the world. Some are sparkling wines like the Italian Asti Spumante and the delicately superior Moscato di Asti. These wines differ from most desert wines in that they are light with moderate sugar and have low to medium alcohol levels, 5.5% for Moscato di Asti and 7-9.5% for Asti Spumante. They are made in the same way champagne is, with natural carbonation.

You have Ice wines which use natural freezing processes to increase available sugars, Late Harvest wines where the grapes are left on the vine to become super ripe, shriveled, and full of sugar; and the best dessert wines of all, those infected with the "Noble Rot" Botrytis cinerea, a mold that causes enzyme and chemical changes in the grapes which concentrate sugars and cause a complex depth of flavors.

Others are fortified wines like Madeira, Port, Sherry, Vermouth, Marsala, Banyuls, Floc de Gascogne, and Malaga. Fortified wines are made in a complicated process that includes adding pure alcohol to the wine at some point during the fermentation and involved aging process. This stops the fermentation, and depending upon how early in the process, can leave the wine with high unfermented sugar levels so that is remains sweet. These wines tend to have quite high alcohol levels because of their being fortified with the added alcohol.

I will be covering the many sweet Sparkling, Fortified, Ice, Late Harvest, Botrytized, and other dessert wine styles in more depth over the next few weeks. I will also try to focus in my reviews on wines that are relatively easy to find, moderately priced, lesser known wines, mostly in the $15US- $25US range. The perfect wines to sample and enjoy, or give as gifts, without breaking your wallet (or mine.)