Sweet wines are the Rodney Dangerfield of the wine world. I’m of course referring to the famous 1980s comedian best known for his signature catchphrase “I don’t get no respect.” That’s a sentiment to which sweet wines can certainly relate. Sadly, sweet wines cannot seem to shake the popular misconception that they have less cachet than dry wines – as evidenced by the number of wine drinkers who wrinkle their nose and shake their head when offered a glass. This aversion is curious, especially when considering that sweet wines rank among some of history’s most celebrated and highly sought-after bottles, and often require considerable effort and expense to produce. Not to mention the fact that many are utterly sublime.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of cringeworthy sweet wines out there. Adding sugar is a quick and easy way for producers to cover up flaws or compensate for poor-quality grapes and the mass market production of cheap, cloying examples has long tarnished the entire category’s reputation. Meanwhile, there is an entirely separate category of unadulterated wines whose natural sweetness results from deliberate choices made in the vineyard or at the start of the winemaking process. Handcrafted in small batches, these wines brim with complexity and nuance, with plenty of vibrant acidity to counterbalance the residual sugar and layers of intriguing aromas and flavors that become even more captivating with age.
With the holiday season upon us, and the anticipation of celebratory gatherings and indulgent dinners in the weeks to come, there’s no better time to revisit sweet wines and explore opportunities for food and wine pairings. Sweet wines come in a diverse array of styles that make for any number of fun and versatile combinations. Traditionally served at the end of a meal, as an accompaniment to dessert or as desserts themselves, sweet wines can also shine as an aperitif, deftly complementing cheese or charcuterie, and work wonders with rich, savory, or spicy dishes. There are many approaches for making sweet wines, the best of which involve concentrating the grapes’ natural sugars prior to fermentation rather than adding a sweetening agent after the fact. Understanding the different production methods can help guide your pairing choices by providing insight into the sweetness of the finished wine, how much alcohol it will contain, and what type of aromas and flavors to expect. If you’re wondering what’s the right style of sweet wine to suit your palate, here are a few options to explore.
Noble Rot
Noble rot is a more flattering nickname for Botrytis cinerea, a fungus that gives a distinctive character to some of the world’s premier sweet wines. (At least the “noble” part is more flattering.) Under the right circumstances, the fungus causes healthy, ripe grapes to dry up and shrivel on the vine, resulting in a high concentration of sugars, acids, and flavors left in the desiccated berries. A vineyard needs near-perfect weather conditions – damp, misty mornings followed by dry, sunny afternoons – for noble rot to thrive. If vintage conditions are less than ideal, noble rot can become decidedly less noble and ruin a vintner’s entire crop. This fickle fungus also spreads unevenly throughout the vineyard, requiring multiple passes over many weeks to harvest suitable bunches (and sometimes individual berries) one-by-one.
One of the most famous wines produced this way is Sauternes, which comes from an area in southwestern Bordeaux. Made from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle, Sauternes falls at the sweet end of the spectrum and is known for its unapologetically luscious texture and decadent notes of honey, butterscotch, dried apricot, ginger, and saffron. Another stellar example is Hungary’s Tokaji Aszú. At harvest, pickers deposit the fully shriveled aszú berries in baskets called puttonyos, which is also the name of the measurement scale historically used to gauge Tokaji Aszú’s sweetness (with three puttonyos being the least sweet and six puttonyos being the most). Made predominantly from Furmint and Hárslevelü, two white grape varieties, the wines are opulent, with pronounced aromas and flavors of ripe peaches, citrus zest, honey, tropical fruit, spice, and candied ginger. Like Sauternes, Tokaji Aszú is very sweet (as of the 2014 vintage, regulations require the equivalent of at least five puttonyos). It is usually higher in residual sugar than Sauternes, but also higher in acidity, which tempers the additional sweetness and gives the wine a silky, ethereal texture.
Other noteworthy examples hail from Germany and Austria, where Riesling’s high acidity and susceptibility to noble rot are ideal for producing very sweet Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines (the latter of which are so prized and rare that they can command astronomical prices). In France, Alsace also crafts lusciously sweet styles from Riesling – as well as Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, and Muscat – known as Sélection de Grains Nobles, and the Loire Valley produces fully sweet Chenin Blanc-based wines in the noble rot-friendly appellations of Coteaux du Layon, Bonnezeaux, and Quarts de Chaume.
Sipping a glass of a decadently sweet noble rot wine qualifies as a dessert in its own right, but these wines are also enjoyable alongside a variety of dishes. Rich, savory foods like foie gras and blue cheese are the classic pairings, but the creaminess of the wine also complements creamy-textured desserts like cheesecake and pumpkin pie. Very sweet noble rot wines pair best with desserts that are less overtly sweet, such as fruit-based tarts and crumbles, meringues, and buttery shortbread cookies. Sweet and spicy is another classic culinary matchup; however, be mindful of alcohol levels when pairing noble rot wines with spicy food. High alcohol wines can harshen and amplify heat, and it’s not uncommon for a Sauternes or Tokaji Aszú to push the limits of what’s considered “high alcohol,” at or above 14% abv.
Late Harvest
Grapes for late harvest wines hang on the vine until they dry up and shrivel, all the while building up a high concentration of sugar. Many grape varieties are suitable for late harvesting, but high-acid varieties like Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chenin Blanc are especially popular choices. Relative to other types of sweet wines, late harvest wines are often lighter in body, with pronounced floral characteristics and purity of fruit. They run the gamut from off-dry (meaning they have just a touch of sweetness) to fully sweet, and feature vibrant jasmine, honeysuckle, melon, quince, ripe stone fruit, and/or fresh tropical fruit aromas and flavors.
Wines made from late harvest grapes will usually point this out on the label, but the information may not always appear in English. Other labeling terms to look for include Spätlese or Auslese for German and Austrian wines, Vendange Tardive for French wines, Vendemmia Tardiva for Italian wines, and Cosecha Tardía for Spanish and South American wines. What’s not always clear from the label is how sweet the wine will be, but the wine’s alcohol level can help point you in the right direction. As a rule of thumb, the lower the stated alcohol level, the sweeter the wine. For instance, a late harvest Riesling with 8% alcohol will be noticeably sweeter than one with 12%. Late harvest wines sometimes incorporate a portion of noble rot-affected grapes to enhance aromatic, flavor, or textural complexity, but without reaching the characteristic sweetness of a Sauternes or Tokaji Aszú.
Late harvest wines pair terrifically with spicy foods. The richness and ripeness of the fruit stands up to bold flavors, mediating the spice with a touch of sweetness and refreshing acidity, while the low alcohol avoids intensifying the heat or overwhelming the palate. They’re also an ideal accompaniment for holiday appetizers or small bites, like brie with strawberry jam, crostini with smoked salmon and cream cheese, or a spicy salsa. Light fruit, custard, and cheese-based desserts, especially those prepared with caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, coconut, or other ingredients that play off flavors in the wine, also pair well with late harvest styles.
Dried Grapes
Another method of naturally concentrating sugars is by drying out the grapes after harvest. Whole bunches of grapes may be left to dry on mats or in baskets under the sun, placed on wooden racks in well-ventilated rooms, or hung from the rafters to dehydrate. This technique is common throughout Italy for crafting sweet passito and recioto wines. Examples include the Sicilian Passito di Pantelleria, made from sun-dried Muscat grapes, with luscious sweetness and intense orange blossom, dried apricot, and candied citrus aromas, and Recioto della Valpolicella, a moderate-to-fully sweet wine made from local red grapes, with soft tannins and dried fig, cherry compote, and sweet spice notes.
Italians also use dried grapes to make Vin Santo, which is a rich and nutty wine typically enjoyed with crunchy almond cookies for dessert. Similarly, sun-dried grapes are the foundation for Greek Vinsanto, an unctuously sweet style with layers of dried fruit, golden raisins, caramel, and nuts. In France, Jura’s sweet Vin de Paille, or straw wine, gets its name from the traditional practice of leaving grapes on straw mats to dry. Many New World wine regions, including California, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina, also produce sweet wines from dried grapes. The wines are typically moderately to fully sweet, with honey, marmalade, and toasted caramel aromas and candied and dried fruit flavors.
This style of sweet wines pairs especially well with spiced or nutty desserts. The dried fruit, caramel, and honey notes in the wine compliment the warm spices in gingerbread cookies and molasses-based treats and enhance the nutty or toffee-based flavors of pecan pie, almond biscotti, or a walnut torte. The wine’s flavor concentration and bright acidity create the ideal backdrop for a sweet and salty matchup with mature or strongly flavored cheeses, perfect for a Roquefort, Gorgonzola, or aged Pecorino or Gouda.
Ice Wine
In parts of the world with reliably cold winters, some producers keep healthy grapes on the vine far past harvest, awaiting the arrival of frosty temperatures. When temperatures plummet, water freezes inside the berries, leaving the sugars, acids, and other solids unaffected. Pressing frozen grapes extracts a small quantity of rich, highly concentrated liquid, while the bulk of the water – still frozen – remains in the press. Aromatic grapes with thick skins and lots of acidity are best suited for making ice wine, including Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Grüner Veltliner, Vidal, and the occasional red grape, like Cabernet Franc. Ice wines are known for their fresh flavors, concentrated purity of fruit, and low alcohol levels. The wines are very sweet, with a round and silky texture. Examples made from white grape varieties typically exhibit ripe peach, apricot, grapefruit, honey, and tropical fruit notes, while those made from red varieties show red berries, rhubarb, and spice.
The Canadian province of Ontario, Northern Michigan, upstate New York, Germany, and Austria are significant producers of ice wine (or Eiswein, as it’s known in Germany and Austria). In these countries, wines labeled as Icewine or Eiswein can only be made from grapes frozen on the vine and the grapes cannot be harvested until temperatures fall below a certain threshold. An alternative approach to making wines from frozen grapes is to harvest the grapes as normal in the fall and store them in freezers at the winery. While freezing the grapes in-house is considerably cheaper and less risky, commercially frozen grapes don’t accumulate the same sugar and flavor concentration as those frozen naturally, and the resulting wines lack depth and complexity, comparatively speaking. If a label reads “iced wine” rather than Icewine or Eiswein, the grapes were probably commercially frozen before processing.
Ice wine’s sweetness and concentrated fruit flavors can overwhelm mild cheeses, but are an excellent match for pungent, creamy blue cheeses or aged cheddar or Gruyere, especially alongside salty Marcona almonds, before or after a meal. They offer a refreshing burst of sweetness to balance the heat of spicy curries, noodles, and stir-fries, and they also make for a sweet accompaniment to more neutral desserts, such as poached fruit, cheesecake, cobblers, sugar cookies, or crème brûlée.
Quality sweet wines – whether made from frozen, dried, or noble rot-affected grapes – are a wonderful pairing opportunity for upcoming holiday gatherings and other celebratory occasions. You may not want to serve them throughout your entire holiday meal, but don’t be afraid to experiment, savor, and enjoy. Drinking a sweet wine is ideal for any occasion, not just a large gathering or special event. Many come in half-bottle sizes, which makes for about a glass and a half each when split between two people, and they will stay fresh for several days when kept refrigerated. While sweet wines from prestigious producers can command very high prices, the bulk of the category is reasonable priced. You’ll find many excellent options in the $30 to $40 range, adding a touch of elegance to your holiday festivities without breaking the bank.