Dessert Wine

Dessert wines are served with desserts or in place of desserts, and provide a blissfully sweet ending to a meal. They range from sweet to dry, and carry between 17 and 24 percent alcohol. Dessert wines include fortified wines, like Sherry and Port, as well as wines made from the intensely-flavored Muscat grape family and from late-harvest varietals. Most of California’s dessert wines are late-harvest varietals, including Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Zinfandel.  "Late harvest" refers to wines made from overripe grapes, or grapes affected with botrytis, a noble rot winemakers cultivate to impart concentrated sweetness. Botrytis causes the grapes to shrivel, concentrating and intensifying both sugar and flavor. These wines carry a lower alcohol content of between 8 and 14 percent, and they deliver loads of pure flavor and just enough acidity to remain refreshing.

Discover the details of making late-harvest varietals!