Sweet wines have a bad reputation in the United States as cheap, watered-down alternatives to the more refined, dry styles. Keep your sticky white zins to yourself, I thought when I began getting interested in wine. I’ll drink my zippy sauvignon blancs and tannic cabernets.
But then I discovered the wine that changed my mind: on a visit to South Africa’s Glen Carlou Wine Estate, I tasted through their portfolio, which included a sweet wine made from 100 percent chenin blanc grapes. I was hesitant when they handed me the glass, but rather than the cloying sweetness I anticipated, I found a surprise instead — a purity of flavor that I had never before experienced, one that the sweetness itself enabled.
Slowly but surely, I uncovered the long history and even more surprising quality of sweet wines, dabbling in German rieslings, tasting through Hungarian tokaji, sipping on Canadian ice wine. Sweet wines throughout the world are produced with different grapes and different methods: some require the grapes to be affected by the noble rot botrytis before being hand picked and pressed; in cold, arid conditions, the grapes hang on the vine so long that they freeze before being harvested. But whatever the method, the ultimate goal is the same: to extract a little bit of concentrated nectar from a tiny, shriveled grape.
Because these grapes are so dehydrated, they produce very little juice, and the amount needed to produce a single glass of sweet wine is astounding. That high production cost, combined with the risk of losing a harvest, results in wines that tend to be more expensive. But for a truly great sweet wine, even a sip at a dear price is worth it. And really, a sip is all you need.
These sweet wines are perfect for a Thanksgiving table:
CHÂTEAU RIEUSSEC 2006 SAUTERNES ($50)
The Hungarians have been making delicious sweet wines from local Furmint and Harslevelu grapes for centuries. This intensely sweet wine is characterized by its bright, clean notes of stone fruit, coconut, and honey; it would go splendidly with desserts that have a little nut or spice, like a spiced pumpkin cake.