DESSERT WINES

My friend Art Meripol shot me an email recently, in which he raved about a particularly wonderful dessert wine he had just finished off.

Art’s a wonderful photographer for a name-brand national magazine and has a website featuring his concert photography and shoots pretty amazing stuff on his iPhone, too.  You can keep up on that by following him on Twitter.

He wrote to me about a wine he had bought at a winery when shooting a travel story on Sonoma a few years back.  Of the Sapphire Hill VLH Zinfandel 2003, Art said, "It was superb.  Sweet, dense, intense black fruit, tar ...everything a great dessert wine should be."

I see this Very Late Harvest Zinfandel on the Sapphire Hill website in the 2006 vintage.  It sells for $26, half bottle.  This sweet product of Alexander Valley grapes is dubbed "liquid candy for grown-ups" in the winemaker notes.  At 9.5% residual sugar, it would not appear to be cloyingly sweet on its own, but is recommended with cheese or chocolate.

Not that I don't think about dessert wines a lot anyway, but Art's email prompted me to sift through my tasting notes of this past year for dessert wines I liked a lot.  Here are a few:

La Quinta Crema Marsala, California NV - Sampled at the San Antonio Winery winemaker dinner a while back, this Marsala shows a nose of raisins, spice and honey with a sherry-like flavor of candied fruit.  This brown-colored, fortified wine would be right at home after a big Thanksgiving meal or Christmas dinner.  FYI, the alcohol level nudges the 20% mark.

Coquelicot Slow Hand Dessert Wine - All late harvest fruit, 50% Chardonnay and 50% Riesling.  It tastes like a baked apple with raisins.

Kalyra Orange Muscat 2006 - Kalyra Winery, up Highway 154 in the pastoral Santa Ynez Valley northwest of Santa Barbara, makes several great dessert wines.  The grapes for this wine were sourced from Madeira, California.  Fortified to a 15% abv number, this viscous liquid is a rich, golden color and so thick and heavy it almost tries to stay in the glass.  On the nose are flowers, honey and apricot candy.  The palate shows even more honey, more apricots and some orange peel notes that play off the sweetness beautifully.  Nice acidity, too.

Pessagno Griva Vineyard Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc Arroyo Seco 2006 - Stephen Pessagno makes small quantity wines from single vineyards in Monterey and San Benito Counties of California, all estate grown.  His Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc is a Sauternes-styled wine made from grapes affected by Botrytis cinerea, or the noble rot.  It has a harvest brix of 48 and a residual sugar of 18.4%.  This is definitely a sweet wine.  The nose shows pear juice, pear cobbler aromas, and a pineapple candy profile.  The sweet custard and caramel flavors are a delight, but it’s not just a sweetie - the acidity is almost bracing and can match any dessert you may put next to it.  The suggested retail price is $35 for a half-bottle.

Graff Family Vineyards Chalone July Muscat 2007 - The Graff Family of Sonoma makes very limited-production wine.  July Muscat is a cross of four different Muscat varieties.  The grapes for this wine are grown in the Chalone appellation in California's Monterey County.  Very pale in the glass, the nose of the Graff Family's July Muscat is incredibly floral and drenched in sweet, ripe peaches and apricots.  Apricots dominate the palate and a mild acidity realizes its full potential on the finish.  That finish is a delight, lingering long with traces of fruity sweetness.

Abundance Vineyards 2008 Bacio Dolce Carignane Dessert Wine - 100% Carignane, plum notes abound in a setting which makes it easy to see why they named it the "sweet kiss."  At 19.5% abv, it’s a hefty drink.

Roxo Port Cellars - This Paso Robles producer does only Port style wines.  Roxo has quite a variety of delicious Port wines made not only from Portuguese varieties, but also Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Pinot Noir.

Mer Soleil LATE 2004 - LATE is a late harvest Viognier kissed by that favorite fungus of dessert wine fans - Botrytis cinerea.  The color is an extremely rich gold with aromas and flavors of honeyed apricots.  An orange zest profile reveals itself in the flavors, too.  

KALYRA ORANGE MUSCAT 2006

Dessert wines get a bad rap from "serious" wine drinkers.  Those who like a dry red's tannins puckering their lips into a fish face simply don't think the sweet side brings much to the table.  That's OK.  To each, his or her own.  Most of the wine I drink is dry, and the dryer the better.  But I pulled a bottle of Orange Muscat from the rack the other night and it reminded me just how nice a good dessert wine can be.

Kalyra Winery, up Highway 154 in the pastoral Santa Ynez Valley northwest of Santa Barbara, makes great dessert wines.  They make some pretty good dry wines, too, but it was their dessert wines Denise and I fell in love with first.  Their Orange Muscat is one we have had through several vintages.  This 2006 has been in the wine rack for some time now, drawing attention to the shameful neglect I have shown the sweet nectar.

The grapes for this wine were sourced from Madeira, California.  Fortified to a 15% abv number, this viscous liquid is a rich, golden color and so thick and heavy it almost tries to stay in the glass.

On the nose are flowers, honey and apricot candy.  The palate shows even more honey, more apricots and some orange peel notes that play off the sweetness beautifully.

Kalyra makes a really lovely dessert, to be sure.  It can carry it's own weight, though, with a nice acidity that makes it pair well with cakes, tarts and the occasional pistachio ice cream.

PESSAGNO GRIVA VINEYARD LATE HARVEST SAUVIGNON BLANC ARROYO SECO 2006

Making great wine is a special gift.  Those who can do it are to be admired for their ability.  Those who can make a special dessert wine have a little something extra in the admiration bank.

Stephen Pessagno’s passbook in that bank must be bulging.  Pessagno makes small quantity wines from single vineyards in Monterey and San Benito Counties, all estate grown.  His Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc is a Sauternes-styled wine made from grapes affected by Botrytis Cinerea, or the noble rot.

The Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc has a harvest brix of 48 and a residual sugar of 18.4%.  This is definitely a sweet wine.  But a 13.5% abv number is an indication there’s something more going on.

The nose shows pear juice, even pear cobbler aromas, and a pineapple candy profile.  The sweet custard and caramel flavors are a delight, but it’s not just a sweetie - the acidity is almost bracing and can match any dessert you may put next to it.  Why waste a dessert, though?  This wine is dessert enough on its own.

The suggested retail price is $35 for a half-bottle, so it's a splurge wine.  But it’s so splurge-worthy.

GRAFF FAMILY VINEYARDS CHALONE JULY MUSCAT 2007

One of the great thrills of the wine world is discovering a wine which makes me really glad I opened the bottle.  Not just ordinary, everyday glad, but extra-special glad.

The Graff Family of Sonoma makes very limited-production wine, partially as a fundraiser for the Richard H. Graff Scholarship Fund for wine and food education. I opened their dessert wine, July Muscat, and I was glad I did.  Extra-special glad.

I had never heard of July Muscat before, but now know that the grape is a cross of four different Muscat varieties.  The hybrid was developed at UC-Davis in the 1950s.

The grapes for this wine are grown in the Chalone appellation in California's Monterey County.  It's a 100% Muscat wine which is fermented in stainless steel and aged two-thirds in steel, one-third in French oak, 20% of which is new.  The oak-aged wine is in barrels for ten months.

On the label, it's called a “sweet table wine,” and at 11.3% abv and a residual sugar level of 10%, that sounds like a fair description.

Very pale in the glass, the nose of the Graff Family's July Muscat is incredibly floral and drenched in sweet, ripe peaches and apricots.  Apricots dominate the palate and a mild acidity realizes its full potential on the finish.  That finish is a delight, lingering long with traces of fruity sweetness that just don't want to go away.

Dessert Wines of Monterey County

The holidays always call for special wines.  You can bring out all the heavy-hitting Cabernets, big Bordeaux blends and dry-as-a-bone Rieslings you want.  The wines that create the biggest stir and the ones that make the biggest impression on your guests are dessert wines.  Sweet and delectable, dessert wines fit in with the holiday mood almost as well as cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.  As a matter of fact, they fit right in with the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.  The Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association supplied me with a small treasure chest of these sweet delights and asked me to pass along my impressions.  The following wines were provided to me at no cost for the purpose of review.  All of them are in 375ml bottles - except the Potbelly Port, which is in a 500ml bottle - and the prices were provided by the MCVGA.

 

J Lohr Vineyards Late-Harvest White Riesling ($25) -  The 2006 vintage was the first White Riesling crop since 1995 for J Lohr's Bay Mist vineyard in the Arroyo Seco region of Monterey County.  It's a 100% varietal wine with 12.3% abv and a luscious 10.3% residual sugar.  Don't write this one off by sniffing "sweetie" and moving along.  The sugar belies a wonderful acidity that makes this wine great for pairing with desserts.  You may like it with an apple tart and vanilla bean ice cream.  You may also like it all by itself.  There's a nose of honeyed fruit and, on the palate, that wonderful "bitter with the sweet" sensation one hopes for in a Riesling.  A beautiful, rich golden color looks great in the glass, too.

 

Joyce Vineyards Pudding Wine 2007 ($28) - The Johannesburg Riesling grapes for this wine came from the Franscioni Vineyard.  Luscious to look at - it's a deep, rich golden color - the aromas and the flavor remind me of a very fine sherry.  It should go very nicely with a pumpkin or pecan pie.  If your sweet tooth isn't shouting for attention, you may find that it makes a fine dessert on its own.  12.5% abv may be a tad high for some, in a dessert wine, but you could minimize the effect of the alcohol by doing as the Monterey wine people recommend - have a pear poached in Pudding Wine.

 

Paraiso, Souzao Port, Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County NV ($25) - Listed as a "tasting room only" wine on their website, this 18.5% abv port-style wine is made from the Souzao grape, which is a Portuguese varietal but now becoming more common in California.  The Paraiso Estate features only about three acres of Souzao, but they managed nearly 600 cases of production.  The wine is aged in French and American oak for two years before bottling.  Quite viscous and very full in the mouth, it's got a rich nose full of candy cherry aromas and an explosive taste that reminds me of raisins and chocolate-covered cherries at the same time. It's a bit rough and over-the-top, so don't expect too much subtlety.  Serve this with chocolate and score big with sweet-toothed guests. 

 

Graff Family Vineyards, Chalone, July Muscat 2007 ($16) - Billed as a sweet table wine, this is made from grapes grown in the Chalone appellation.  It's 100% July Muscat, quite a rare grape variety developed in the '50s at UC Davis.  Its 10% residual sugar and 11.3% abv level gives a soft and aromatic wine with strong floral notes.  It's an amazing accompaniment to an apricot or pear tart.

 

Ventana Vineyards Orange Muscat 2008 ($18) -  Tropical fruit and vanilla greet the nose, while the flavors of peaches dominate on the palate.  The alcohol level is 15% - quite a bit higher than most Muscats - and residual sugar is 7.2%.  You can serve this chilled as an apertif, or alongside a biscotti.

 

Mer Soleil LATE Late-Harvest Viognier 2004 ($36) - Botrytis-influenced Viognier gives a warm, golden color in the glass and the aromas are as sweet as honey.  The taste is sweet, too, but with a good level of acidity that sports a nice hint of orange peel.  Expect a lush and long finish.  Pair this with Foie Gras or with warm blue cheese-stuffed Mission Figs for a delightful dessert.

 

Pessagno Late-Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2006 ($25) -  Fully Botrytised grapes from the Arroyo Seco appellation clock in at 13.8% abv and 18.4% residual sugar and spent five months in wood, making this a dessert wine lover's dessert wine.  This Sauterne-style wine is dessert all by itself, but you can drizzle it over fruit or let it make a Creme Brulee memorable.

 

Kendall-Jackson Late-Harvest Chardonnay 2006 ($25) - Floral and cinnamon aromas lead to candied fruit flavors in this lush drink.  The winemaker calls it "the nectar of the gods."  He may be biased, but he does know what he's talking about.  This sweet Chard really dresses up a plate of butter cookies.

 

Mission Trail, Potbelly Port ($36) - Maybe the unflattering name arises from the fact that this wine is jammed full of grapes.  There are six Portuguese grapes here - Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cao, Tinta Roriz, Souzao, Tinta Madeira and Tempranillo.  Brandy was added halfway through the fermentation.  The result is a Port that is jammy and rich, with flavors of chocolate-covered cherries, black pepper, anise, tobacco and clove.  Top off your feast with this portly port and a chocolate bread pudding for a dessert as memorable as the holiday.