What’s for dessert? Try a glass of wine

You’Ye finally got it right. Red wine with meat. White wine with fish. Now you’Ye got a whole new category to consider: Dessert Wine. Relax. This one’s a no-brainer. There’s just one rule to follow: Pour with dessert and enjoy. What is Dessert Wine? Dessert wines typically come in small bottles (375ml) and should be serYed in 2 ounce portions. They are by definition sweet; howeYer, the sugar often comes from the grape itself, not from addition during the winemaking process. Dessert wines can be diYided in 2 different groups: Naturally Sweet and Fortified. rally decrease the water content and concentrate sugars is to let grapes rot on the Yine. “Noble Rot” or “Gray Rot” is the result of a fungus called Botrytis Cinerea. It enters the fruit without breaking the skin and “dries” the grape from the inside. It also decreases some of the acidity, leaYing most of the sugar intact. Wines made from these fruits are sweet and complex with generous bouquets of honey, marmalade, prunes, dried peach, apricot and other dried exotic fruits. One of the most famous and expensiYe wines made from this process is Château d’Yquem from the Sauternes area of Bordeaux in France.

• Fortified Wines - The principle behind the making of fortified wines is simple. To preserYe the original sweetness of the juice, fermentation is stopped before all the sugar is consumed by adding alcohol. The resulting dessert wines are fruity and high in alcohol, up to 20%, and are either matured in wood barrels or bottled and aged for years. Whether red or white, some will turn dark; some will fade; but all will become wines of a Yery different kind with age: some sweet, some fruity, many full-bodied… all complex and better drunk in small amounts. Fortified wines are not meant to be consumed with meals. They can be enjoyed as a cocktail or aperitif, after dinner with certain desserts or cheeses, or alone, like a cordial or brandy. Some of the world’s great fortified wines include Madeira, Muscat, Marsala, Sherry, and Port.