Dessert Wines - Facts, Types
Dessert wines are usually served with a dessert, but can also be enjoyed by itself or with fruit or bakery sweets. They are a little more complex to define than other wines. For example, the United Kingdom deemed them as any wine that is sweet and can be drunk during a meal, whereas white fortified wines are drunk before the meal, and red fortified wine are drunk after. In the United States, dessert wines are legally defined as wines that are over 14 percent alcohol volume. As a result of the alcohol volume, these beverages are taxed higher.When producing dessert wines, the makers want to have high levels of sugar and alcohol. There are a lot of ways to increase the sugar levels in these wines. One way is to grow grapes for natural sugar to spare for both the sweetness and alcohol. They also add sugar before fermentation as sugar or honey, or after fermentation as unfermented must. Add alcohol and remove water to concentrate the sugar.
Most people will agree that wine and dessert go well together, holding hands as they skip into the sunset of your mouth. Just the very image of a glass of wine next to a plate of tiramasu is enough to make most people salivate, drooling like a person about to fall in love at first bite. It seems simple enough: a glass of wine, a plate of sweets, a taste bud or fifty, but wining and dining in this manner needs more than a twinkie and a bottle of sugary liquid; it requires proper pairing of food and wine for the ultimate experience. It also requires a knowledge of what the term “dessert wines” truly entails.
Facts About Dessert Wines
1. They are made mainly from special fruits that were left to ripen on the wine. The reason for this is to make the flavor stronger. The kinds of fruits used in making dessert wines are the ones that define the overall taste or flavor of the wine.
2. In the United States, it generally contains 14% alcohol, though, it may contain more than 14%.
3. The more ripened the fruit is, the more alcohol is generated when produced into dessert wine. Majority of these wines are classified as unfortified and dry wine or those wines that don’t have spirits in them like brandy. The inclusion of spirits during the fermentation of the wine is the process of fortifying the wine.
Types of Dessert Wines
The very definition of a dessert wine is the topic of debate in the wine community. In the United States, the legal definition of a dessert wine is one that is fortified and contains more than 15% alcohol by volume. However, many people believe that it is the sugar content that makes the distinction. After all, some fortified wines with more than 15% alcohol are in fact aperitifs, meant to be consumed before eating, not after.
Sherry is perhaps the most well-known of after dinner wines. It is typically made in Spain. Port follows closely in popularity as a well-known dessert wine originating in Portugal. Marsala (from Italy) and Madeira (from Portugal) are other popular choices of fortified wines.
As a result, many dessert wines are not a result of the grape growing process, but of the amount of sugar added before or after fermentation. In Germany, for example, sugar is increased by adding grape juice after fermentation, which has the side effect of lowering the alcohol content. Other techniques for increasing sweetness include using grapes that have a specific type of mold on them, freezing out some of the water, or drying the grapes before fermentation.
