Types of Dessert Wine

People have different taste when it comes to alcohol, some like beer, some of us have a weakness for vodka and martini; scotch is favorite among corporates and then there's wine which has a special place in the hearts of men and women. There's a general impression in the minds of young adults that wine is a woman's drink. Well, it's right, women love wine but this doesn't mean that men don't enjoy it. Due to a wide variety offered by wines, men and women both reserve wine for special occasions. There's goes an old saying that "Variety is the spice of life", so how about trying different types of dessert wines for a change.

What are Dessert Wines

In simple language, dessert wines are wines which have a high sugar content than the regular red and white wine. A normal table wine has less than 1% sugar and the dessert wine has anywhere between 3% to 20% of sugar content in it. Like table wines, there are various other dessert wines in the market. Like white and red wine, they also have many varieties with great variations in the price too.

Different Types of Dessert Wines

There are two main categories of dessert wines; fortified and unfortified. In fortified wines after the fermentation process has ended more spirits like brandy are added. The main reason why alcohol is added is to increase the sweetness and alcohol content. The unfortified wines raise their alcohol content by various other methods. There's also a huge difference in the temperatures at which these wines are served. Fortified wines taste best when they are served at room temperature or little cold. While unfortified wines should be served thoroughly chilled. You should also know that dessert sweet wines take more time to make, more time to ferment ,and even their maturity period is much more than regular table wines.

How to Identify Different Dessert Wines

When you talk about different type of dessert wines you are covering more than 100 varieties of different sweet wines. But, if you want to identify the types of dessert wine, here are some ways in which you can do it.

First Method
The best way to identify is to taste the wine. The main thing to look out in a dessert wine is its sweet content which is made from the fermented grape juice. Almost all dessert wines are made by preventing the fermentation process before the yeast converts all the sugar into alcohol. Preventing this process can be done in a number of ways, fortification being the most common one. This embarks the beginning of the process in which the alcohol is being introduced from an outside source. The increased alcohol level kills of the yeast, which cannot survive in a liquid which has more than 16% alcohol level in it.

Second Method
There are also some low alcoholic wines found in the list of dessert wines. The best way to identify them is to taste and understand. Dessert wines are made sweet by removing the yeast from the fermenting juice, before it finishes the entire fermentation process. This is the ideal way in which most low alcoholic dessert wines are made. The alcoholic content in dessert wines is around 6%, and the drink is very light and subtle to drink.

Best Dessert Wines

Now that you have a fair idea what are the different types of dessert wine. Here are some brands which are considered to be the best in the market.

• Hogue Cellar's Late Harvest White Riesling
• Late Harvest Riesling Dessert Wine
• Inniskillin Vidal Icewine
• Pinot Gris
• Tawny Port
• Lustau Muscat Sherry
• Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto
• Saracco Moscato d'Asti

Dessert wines taste best when served with a great dessert. So don't forget to try one the next time you head out to eat.