While exploring the Italian cuisine of Cinque Terre, I tried an exquisite dessert wine, called Sciacchetrà. It's sweet and has expressive notes. The drink was brought to us with a plate of homemade pistachio biscotti and biscotti flavored with apricots. Ah, what a splendid way to end a meal! As a lifted the glass of Sciacchetrà to my lips, I could smell a distinctive aroma of apricots and acacia honey.

Just a small glass of Sciacchetrà pairs perfectly with biscotti. As with all dessert wines, this one should be sweeter than the food accompanying it. The slight bitterness of the biscotti balances the intense sweetness of the wine. Sciacchetrà also works well with a slice of panettone.

This rare white wine of very limited production has become a symbol of Cinque Terre. It is produced from the best grapes of the white wines being left to dry in the sun. Several wine shops sell Sciacchetrà. Alternatively, you can find it online. A half a liter sells for approximately $75. It's well worth the splurge.

Peter Lehmann Barossa Valley 2006 Botrytis Semillon is 12.5% abv. / 25 proof and bottled at 13.5 brix. According to Aussiewines.com the Botrytis affected fruit was picked on the 26th April, sourced solely from the Peter Lehmann Semillon vineyard on the banks of the River Para. Chief winemaker Andrew Wigan declared 2006 the best vintage for botrytis development that he has ever experienced. The vintage conditions were perfect. Weather in the latter part of the growing season gave ideal conditions for the natural development of Botrytis on the late picked Semillon grapes which were allowed to develop their intense characters while still on the vine. Approximately 20% of this wine was fermented in new French oak hogsheads. Botrytis affected wines are the most complex and longest lived of all sweet table wine styles. The 2006 vintage is an outstanding edition, and the winemakers are fully confident that it will give pleasure for many years to come. It was a Medal Winner at the Sydney & Melbourne Wine Shows. Peter Lehmann 2006 is a great release from an outstanding vintage for the Barossa's Botrytis Semillon.

The color is a nice medium-light gold with a hint of yellow/green to it. I expect the color to mature over time to a full, rich gold. The aroma is of bright fresh fruit like, pineapple, lemon, pear, with hints of hint of citrus and honeyed botrytis notes. The taste is that of fresh, ripe apricot, lemon zest, orange blossom honey, citrusy acid and botrytis flavors, over the classic semillon taste. This is a young, bright, and fresh tasting dessert wine that should age very well for decades, developing depth and complexity.

I have to pick up a few bottles to lay down to age and see how they develop, because the wine is an excellent young desert wine that shows promise of aging into an amazing mature one. The suggested price of just under $20 for a 375 ml. bottle is a good buy but if you shop around you can pick it up for much less. I paid $13.99 at the New Hampshire State liquor store and that was a steal.

Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto D'Acqui 2005 is a sparkling dolce (sweet) red wine of 7% abv. which comes in 375 ml. (half size- $10) and 750 ml. bottles from Strevi, Italy.

Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto D'Acqui 2005 is a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantia Brachetto D'Acqui just like the Marenco Pineto Brachetto D'Acqui 2005 I recently reviewed. This means it is of a certified origin and a mildly sparkling wine made from the light, red Brachetto grape. Brachetto D'Acqui is made primarily in the Asti, Roero, and especially Alessandria areas in the Piemonte region. It is the red version of the Moscato d'Asti sparkling dessert wine. In the past fifteen years there have also been a few dry sparkling Brachetto wines created, but so far they haven't been made widely, and are quite rare.

The Banfi Rosa Regale is a bit less sweet and intense, and has a slightly higher alcohol level, than the Marenco Pineto Brachetto D'Acqui 2005. It is a dark ruby red and has an aroma of red berries and a hint of roses. The taste is of raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, and grapes. It works well as an aperitif or with desert, and even between courses to refresh the palate.

Brachetto d'Acqui wines, especially the Banfi Rosa Regale, are some of the few wines that go well with chocolate, especially dark and bittersweet ones. So if it's late at night, and you're cuddling with your significant other and you need a bit of refreshment, try the scrumptious combination, exchanging sips and nibbles by candlelight. Have a Happy and Cozy New Year!

Here is a glossary of terms involving sweet, dessert wines, a bookmark-worthy reference for anyone interested in dessert wines.

Abv.- Alcohol by Volume, the amount or percentage of alcohol by volume in wine, beer, or spirits.
Anjou- A wine region of France in the Western Loire around the town of Angers that became known in the 1500-1600's for sweet wine production. The white Cote de Layon is known as the best of these, there are also the Rosé d'Anjou and the red Cabernet d'Anjou. Sweet wine is now only a small percentage of the wine produced in this region.
Appellation- geographical areas that are certified and have regulations governing the wines made there.
Asti- a town and province in Piemonte/Piedmont, Italy known for sweet and sparkling wines.
Asti Spumante- A sweet sparkling wine made in Asti with 7-9.5% abv and high carbonation, 3.5-4 atmospheres of pressure, produced from moscato bianco grapes.
Aszú- A tokaji wine
Ausbruch- an Austrian wine style very similar to Aszú and developed at the same time. Made with a combination of botrytized and regular grapes.
Auslese- See German Labeling Laws

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.