All terms

Dessert wine

Dessert wine is an umbrella term for sweet wines in which the grapes' natural sugar has been concentrated. That sweetness can be achieved in several ways. With late harvest the grapes hang longer on the vine and develop more sugar. Noble rot, a beneficial fungus also known as Botrytis cinerea, dries the grapes out on the vine and concentrates the sugar, and you will recognise it from Sauternes, among other places. In the so-called passito method the grapes are laid out to dry after the harvest, so the water evaporates and the flavour gathers, as seen in Italian Vin Santo. Ice wine is made from grapes that freeze on the vine and are picked frozen, while fortified sweet wines such as port and sherry have grape spirit added so that part of the sugar is preserved.

What sets a good dessert wine apart from something cloyingly sweet is the balance. The sweetness is accompanied by a fresh acidity that lifts the wine and makes it lively rather than heavy. That is why many dessert wines taste of concentrated fruit, dried fruit, honey or caramel, while still feeling well composed.

You can recognise dessert wine by its full, syrupy texture and its clear sweetness, and it is typically served in smaller glasses, because a little goes a long way. A common misunderstanding is that all sweet wines are alike. In practice the category spans widely, from light and floral to deep and fortified, depending on the method and the grapes.