

Riesling or late-harvest Gewürztraminer.Some of the sweet wines whose quality is consistent throughout the years are: If you plan to start a sweet wine collection, you should get familiar with some of the most popular ones on the market. That leads to naturally sweet wines, way sweeter than wines made with grapes that haven’t been infected in the first place. The process is known as noble rot, and after nearly all the water has been absorbed, what’s left is natural sugar, trace minerals, malic and tartaric acids. If you’re curious how sweet reds are made, and how best to pair them, then please don’t forget to check out our article on sweet red wine!īotrytis is a type of fungus that infects the grape and absorbs almost all water from the grapes. This process is used for the making of the famous white port wine. The earlier the spirit is added, the sweeter the wine will be. To do this, winemakers pour a grape spirit into the wine to eliminate the yeast so that the residual alcohol doesn’t turn into alcohol. That will make the grape’s flavors very concentrated.įortification is another method used to create a sweet wine. The thing is if the grapes are left on the vine long after their harvest time, the water in the fruit will start to evaporate.

The later the grape is picked, it will be riper and sweeter, which are essential for making a sweet wine. The easiest and most natural method to make a sweet wine is harvesting the grape as late as possible. Best served chilled, they are an excellent way to explore some more different kinds of wine than your traditional fare. Sweet white wines fall into many types, from Riesling and Gewurtztraminer to fortified white port and even ice wine. Processes that will make the wine sweet while preserving its complexity. But it is a tricky process that requires a detailed approach that won’t kill the wine’s nuanced flavors.īecause of that, many sweet wines undergo different, more natural processes of fermentation. But in all fairness, some sweet wines with good quality, use capitalization in their winemaking processes. Low-quality sweet wines tend to taste too simplistic, mainly if it is produced through capitalization, which is a process of adding sugar cane or beet to the grape before the fermentation. The one thing that sets apart top sweet wines from mediocre ones or those with low quality is their complexity. Under all that residual sugar, there is an abundance of layers of various flavors, which means sweet wines are rarely only sweet. Some of those wines are as elegant and complex as prominent wines such as the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, white Burgundy, or white Bordeaux. Contrary to some beliefs, sweet wine is not only for dessert but can be appreciated on their own, or enjoyed with some savory dishes.
