{"id":357,"date":"2009-10-06T10:27:18","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T14:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/2009\/10\/06\/dessert-wine\/"},"modified":"2009-10-06T11:18:59","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T15:18:59","slug":"dessert-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Dessert Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is ironic that on a night as a host, you may serve spectacular reds and whites during the course of a dinner, and if you take the extra step to serve a dessert wine<\/strong>, it will be that wine which will most be remembered. Why?\u00a0 Because a dessert wine is so infrequently encountered \u2013 in the home or in a restaurant. <\/p>\n

Even a quick look at some of the finest wine lists from some of the finest restaurants will reveal but a few entries on the dessert side.\u00a0 Sometimes just Ch. D\u2019Yquem, and nothing else (nothing wrong with Yquem; but more on that later).\u00a0 Again, why?\u00a0 The answer is simple\u2026 the wines are rarely ordered.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the least understood wine as a category<\/em> in the United States is <\/em>dessert wine.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, we think they are sweet and cloying and leave a syrupy coating in our mouth.\u00a0 And this couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.\u00a0 High quality dessert wine is packed with lush sweet fruit flavours; but then they have a clean finish with a satisfying trace of its powerful sweetness.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Next, we don\u2019t really understand the service. A dessert wine is part of the dinner. It is as much part of hospitality of the table as any wine that would have preceded it.\u00a0 Its presence on the menu recalls a day when there was a leisurely graciousness to our dinning.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And to reduce the world\u2019s dessert wines to one label (even if it is Ch. D\u2019Yquem) is nonsense. Every significant wine producing region makes dessert wine (granted some only for local consumption). Other than sharing sweetness <\/em>as the common denominator, the world\u2019s dessert wines are as varied as\u2026 well, the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In France, Bordeaux produces one of the best: Sauternes<\/strong>. Made from a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, the producers will wait \u2018til the grapes are \u201cpost ripe\u201dto a time when autumn morning mists bring an airborne mold, botrytis cinerea<\/em>, to the vineyards.\u00a0 This mold attacks the skins of the grapes, bursting them, allowing for water content to escape and thereby concentrate the flavours and sweetness in the ugly shriveled grapes. The resulting wines are a honeyed nectar. It is here where Ch. D\u2019Yquem reigns supreme.<\/p>\n

Further to the north, the Vineyards of Alsace work a similar magic with Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris. The Late Harvest wines, called Vendange Tardif <\/strong>resemble the Late Harvest wines on the other side of the Rhine River.\u00a0 And even more exotic are the botrytized <\/em>Selection de Grains Nobles<\/strong> made from individual selected bunches of grapes.<\/p>\n

In Germany the art of making sweet wine stands alongside of the renown German brew-making skill.\u00a0 Working principally with Riesling, the Estates of Mosel and the Rheingau produce wines with varying degrees of sweetness.\u00a0 Beginning with Spatlese <\/strong>(\u201clate picked\u201d), moving to Auslese <\/strong>(\u201cselected harvest\u201d), then to Beerenauslese<\/strong> (\u201cselected berries\u201d), and finally Trockenbeerenauslese <\/strong>(\u201cselected dried berries\u201d).\u00a0 Each level represents a higher degree of minimum sugar level in the grapes picked at harvest.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The ultimate wine produced in this method is Eiswein<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not made in every vintage, Eiswein is made from grapes left on the vine and harvested during the night after a freeze.\u00a0 During the winemaking, the icy content of the grape (water) is separated from the juice leaving an intensely sweet flavour base from which to make a tiny amount of wine. (This style of winemaking has caught on in Canada where other varietals like Vidal are also used to make their Ice Wine<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Further to the East, long before Sauternes reached its present exalted status, the dessert wine from the Hungarian plain was prized in the Courts of Europe.\u00a0 It all began when the Archbishop Drascovics presented Tokaji Aszu<\/strong> to Pope Pius IV as a gift at the Council of Trent in 1652. From there to Tsars and Kings, the wine became wedded to Royalty.<\/p>\n

In Italy, Recioto di Soave <\/strong>is produced from grapes harvested in the fall, and then left to air day \u2018til February.\u00a0 The grapes, with a natural loss of 35% of their moisture, have concentrated sweetness and an intensity of flavour, are then pressed into wine. The wine is enjoyed by itself, or more typically with biscotti<\/em>. A sip of wine, dip the biscotti into the wine\u2026 there is nothing better! Recioto soaked biscotti!<\/p>\n

South Africa has Straw Wine <\/strong>(also air dried). \u00a0Argentina, Chile, Napa, Willamette & etc.\u00a0 Really, there isn\u2019t a place that doesn\u2019t produce some type of dessert wine, whether made thru late harvesting <\/em>or by air drying.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Return to your dinner table. When you serve dessert wine, regardless of the Country\u2019s origin, you have instantly elevated eating to the highest level of dinning.<\/em> You have just transported your evening to the Cunard Line\u2026 to crossing the Atlantic before WWII, when men and women dressed for dinner<\/em> & when dinner was served in courses, beginning with an aperitif white, proceeding to a fuller white, reds matching to the courses of food and <\/em>finishing with a dessert wine.<\/em> And if the dessert wine was Ch. D\u2019Yquem then you would know you had just reached the apex of the night.<\/p>\n

Last bit of advice.\u00a0 Whenever you can, buy the worst <\/em>vintage of Ch. D\u2019Yquem you can find\u2026 it will cost you less.\u00a0 You can\u2019t go wrong. Insiders know that even in lesser vintages, Yquem is a glorious wine\u2026 if the vintage is truly sub-standard, they don\u2019t make wine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is ironic that on a night as a host, you may serve spectacular reds and whites during the course of a dinner, and if you take the extra step to serve a dessert wine, it will be that wine … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}