The Sweet Surprise of Dessert Wines
PART TWO
By Ophelia Santos

We continue our discovery of dessert wines in this issue by taking a closer look at what makes some wines more special than others.

Many of the world’s finest examples are produced by arresting fermentation before yeasts have acted upon all the sugar in the must. Yeasts are the organisms responsible for the transformation of grape juice into wine. They are finicky critters, many of which are unable to function in environments much above 15% or 16% alcohol by volume. They are sensitive to temperature, preferring warm conditions to very cool or very hot extremes.  

A fungus known as botrytis cinerea, or noble rot, can affect grapes on the vine, concentrating the sugars and flavors in individual berries by drawing out water. The juice pressed from these botrytis berries is so rich that even when the yeasts are incapacitated at 15% or 16% alcohol, a large quantity of sugar remains unfermented in the must.  

Dessert wines made from botrytis fruit are unique in their taste profile, as they possess an added level of complexity that cannot be derived from normal grapes. 

For the winegrower, botrytis presents a special challenge because its occurrence cannot be guaranteed with every vintage. Further, harvesting of fruit is more complicated because noble rot does not affect the crop uniformly. This necessitates manual harvesting and multiple passes through the vineyard to ensure that only the grapes touched by the fungus are collected. Combine these factors with limited quantities of production and it becomes clear why a half bottle of a recent-vintage Château d’Yquem (a dessert wine from the region of Sauternes) can set you back almost $100.

BOTRYTIS DESSERT WINES

Our panel gave high marks to three botrytis dessert wines that deliver excellent value at different price points: 

2000 Morande Edición Limitada Golden Harvest Sauvignon Blanc
Casablanca Valley, Chile
This is the frontrunner among selections in the category, with an opulent golden color that portends even more luxury in the mouth.  The wine is full-bodied and unctuous, with multilayered flavors of tropical and stone fruits that dance over a subtly spicy vanilla base.  One must never say “no” when offered a glass of this nectar. 

Food Matches: roasted chestnuts, flan, crêpes Suzette
Approximate retail: $32/375 ml bottle

2001 Château Baulac Dodijo Sauternes
Bordeaux, France
Possessing a powerful personality and greater fruitiness than other Sauternes, this is not a wine for the faint-of-palate.  Intensely rich flavors of honey and dried fig are balanced by refreshing acidity, making this an excellent pairing with desserts as well as select main dishes.

Food Matches: asparagus, Roquefort cheese, (and for the ultimate indulgence) lobster
Approximate retail: $22/375 ml bottle

2000 Dolce Far Niente
Napa
With only 1,900 cases produced, this is a rare bottle indeed.  The price tag might seem lofty at first, but one sip of this wine will convince the most jaded taster of its merits.  It has remarkably complex aromas of citrus rind, stone fruits, caramel, spice, and earth, along with superb structure, that make this a perfect candidate for long-term cellaring.

Food Matches: crème brûlée, Duck à l’Orange, foie gras
Approximate retail: $69/375 ml bottle

VINSANTO

Another method for concentrating sugars in grapes is to dry them, a technique that is used in the production of Tuscany’s ever-popular dessert wine, vinsanto.  Treating the grapes in this fashion allows the sugars to concentrate as water evaporation takes place.  Once more, because of the high sugar content of the must, alcoholic fermentation ends before much of this sugar is exhausted.  The resulting wine is unique in character and can be found in varying levels of sweetness.

The panel’s choice for vinsanto was:

1996 Volpaia Vinsanto del Chianti Classico
Tuscany, Italy
The nose is intensely aromatic, scented with dried fig, raisin, citrus peel, roasted pear and spice, with a distinctive, sherry-like quality indicating deliberate oxidation.  The wine is more rustic in character compared to the other wines we refer to here, but the honeyed flavors are well integrated on the palate.  Consider this as an option to cap off a hearty meal of pasta or risotto.

Food Matches: cantuccini (traditional anise-and-almond biscotti), tiramisu, hazelnuts
Approximate retail: $26/ 375 ml bottle

MUSCAT WINES

The Muscat grape is singularly suited for the production of dessert wines because of its intense perfume and grapey character.  It can produce good quality sparkling wines (see Sparkling Sweet Wines, Flavors Winter 2004), as well as excellent sweet still wines that may be fortified or not.  Fortification, or the addition of a neutral spirit to stop fermentation, is the method by which sweetness is achieved in Port.  It is also used in the production of some of Europe’s most famous Muscat-based dessert wines, including Muscat Beaumes-de-Venise from France’s Rhone Valley, and Samos from Greece.

Two fortified Muscats to consider:

NV Boutari Samos 
Samos, Greece
If you have not tasted wines from Greece recently, you are missing a lot.  This Samos was the panel’s choice for Muscat-based dessert wines – and deservedly so.  A rich, round wine bursting with flavors of fruit, caramel and honey.  Nectar of the Gods, perhaps?

Approximate retail: $19/750 ml bottle

2002 Domaine de la Pigeade Muscat Beaumes-de-Venise 
Southern Rhone, France

Approximate retail: $18/375 ml bottle
Food Matches: blue cheeses, flan or crème caramel, fresh fruit tarts

People who are intrigued by the flavors of dessert Muscat but would like a selection that is lower in alcohol might consider the following non-fortified

2003 Robert Mondavi Moscato d’Oro
Approximate retail: $19/375 ml bottle

2003 Caprilli Moscadello di Montalcino
Approximate retail: $26/750 ml bottle

2002 Eos Estate Late Harvest Moscato “Tears of Dew”
Approximate retail: $22/375 ml bottle

A special thanks to the members of the tasting panel who donated their precious time and discriminating palates to assist me with this article:

Barbara Pires, Pastry Chef, Metrotainment Bakery
Elizabeth Riadi, Certified Sommelier, Il Vino Imports 
James W. Paul II, MS, CCE, FMP, Chef Director-Culinary Arts, The Art Institute of Atlanta
Labe Mell, Wine Consultant/Wine Educator, Atlantic Wine/Alliance Française
Stevenson Rosslow, Sommelier/Restaurant Manager, Bluepointe Restaurant/Buckhead Life Restaurant Group

 

Photography by John Haigwood Studio

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