I have collected wine for years, but I haven't bought very much lately because I managed to get too much in the past and I need to drink it before I actively purchase a lot more. However, certain types of wine seem to run down quickly and need to be replaced periodically. Recently, I bought a few bottles to replenish some of these categories.
One type of wine that I have always loved, but which seems to be somewhat neglected these days (although it has its devoted fans) is unfortified dessert wine. I'm curious to find out if there are others here who love these very sweet wines.
Most of the unfortified dessert wines commonly encountered fall into the late harvest category. Grapes are left on the vine until they start to shrivel up and the sugars and flavor become concentrated. Or in some cases, methods are used to assist this process. Within this broad category of wine, there are two sub-types that I love: ice wine and botrytized wine.
Ice wine is made from frozen grapes. In the traditional method (required by law in Canada and Germany) the grapes are left on the vine until well into winter, and they are allowed to partially freeze. The remaining juice is highly concentrated in sugar and flavor. The result is a wine that is very sweet, and also incredibly complex and intense. My favorites are the Canadian and German ice wines, but they generally don't come cheap. In California, ice wines are made artificially - the grapes are frozen after harvest. Some of these are available at bargain prices, and many are quite good considering the price. One very good inexpensive California ice wine, made from the aromatic muscat grape, is Bonny Doon Muscat Vin de Glaciere. It is usually about $10 for a half-bottle, and it is consistently good.
(Note that dessert wine is often sold in half-bottles. Since it is so sweet and concentrated, a little goes a long way. I usually drink it in small quantities out of miniature wine glasses or champagne flutes.)
Botrytized wine is made from grapes that have begun to rot. It turns out that a fungus called Botrytis cinerea, if it attacks the right types of grapes under the right conditions, concentrates the juices and creates a very complex flavor. When this happens, it is called noble rot. When the conditions are wrong, it just ruins the grapes and is called grey rot. Dessert wines that result from noble rot are among the best in the world. At their best, they are very sweet and acidic, and have complex, intense flavors that are hard to describe in words. Legal requirements vary. In Europe, it is allowed to happen (or not) naturally, so the wine may vary from vintage to vintage. In the famous Sauternes region of France, this happens naturally often enough that the region has become famous for it. One of the most expensive dessert wines in the world, Chateau d'Yquem, comes from this region. I have tried it once, and in my opinion its reputation is well-deserved. (And the one I had was a weaker vintage; I can't even begin to imagine how good the strong vintages must be after they have aged for decades.) I just bought a half-bottle of the 2002 vintage (about $150), so I will have another opportunity to try it after I have let it age for a while. Most of the European botrytized wines are rather expensive (although the excellent Tokaji wine from Hungary is sometimes less expensive - I have bought good ones for $30/500ml), but there are some from California, Australia, and elsewhere that are significantly less expensive. The secret to making this wine cheaply with consistent quality is to spray the grapes with spores. The ones I have tried have not been as good as the best Sauternes, but they are excellent for the price (often around $20/half-bottle) and their quality is more consistent than Sauternes.
So has anyone else discovered these sweet wines? If so, please post recommendations.
Heather
