This article will help you identify sweetness in the wines you are tasting, the difference between risidual sugar and fruit and where the sweetness comes from.
Instructions
1. Understanding where the sweetness comes from. When wine is made, grapes are crushed and either taken away from the skins (for white wine) or left to macerate with the skins (for red wine). They are put into a vat of some kind and almost immediately the juice begins to ferment. The fermentation is a chemical reaction between the sugars in the grape juice and yeast. The yeast is either ambient, that is to say, in the air naturally or on the grape skins that the juice is macerating with, or the yeast can be added artificially. When the yeast comes in contact with sugar, it converts it to alcohol. Once all of the sugar has been converted, the yeast dies, falls to the bottom of the vat, and is "racked off," or removed. If the yeast somehow is unable to convert all of the sugars to alcohol, the wine will not be fermented to full dryness and some residual sugar will remain. Thus, we have sweet or semi-sweet wines.
2. Understanding the ways sweet wine is made. There are two main ways to stop the fermentation process on purpose in order to maintain a level of sweetness in a wine. The first is by killing the yeasts in the fermenting wine by adding alcohol to it. Yeasts cannot live in a liquid that is above a certain level of alcohol, so if a wine has fermented only half of its sugars to alcohol and a highly alcoholic liquid is introduced to the mix, the yeasts will die and the wine will maintain whatever sugars were left in the juice before fermentation. This process is called "fortifying wine" and it is used most commonly in the making of port. You can tell when a wine is fortified by looking at the alcohol content. If the content is above 17 percent or so, you can be sure that the wine is most likely very sweet and has been fortified. The second way to stop fermentation before all of the sugars have converted is by cooling the fermenting wine down to a temperature where the yeast cells can't work. When the temperature of a wine falls below a certain point, the yeast cells go into a hibernating state and stop converting sugars. At this point, the wine can be "fined," or strained for yeasts and impurities, and brought back up to temperature. The alcohol content on these wines are usually low. They are almost always below or around 10 percent, although some can be a little higher depending on the sweetness of the wine. Many traditional style German Rieslings are made this way.
3. Tasting the wines and understanding their purposes. When tasting a low alcohol wine that has some residual sugars in it, it is easy to dismiss it as a "beginners wine," or something made for the uneducated palate. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are a myriad of truly complex (and incredibly expensive) "off-dry" Rieslings that could stand up to a dry, oaky chardonnay any day. Most often the aromas of these wines will have a lot of ripe stone fruit and even some tropical fruit in them. Apricot, ripe peach, and pineapple are common. The scent of honey and clover are also often found in these wines. The taste will be, or course, mildly sweet, but with a backbone of acidity to balance (the Riesling grape is one of the most inherently acidic grapes in the world, which is why they make such amazing off-dry wines). Similar fruits will appear on the palate, with a focus on honeyed notes on the finish. When tasting a fortified wine, like a port, it is good to remember that these wines are usually drunk at the end of a meal, and for good reason. They are powerful all around. The aromas on a port will range anywhere from figs, dates, cashews and brown sugar on a ruby port to hazelnut, cocoa, toffee and molasses on a vintage port. The palate can vary wildly as well, but is always dark and laden with dried fruit flavors. On a ruby port, raisin and date flavors might dominate up front while orange peel and clove might round out the finish. On a darker port, like a vintage, the front of the palate might be nuttier and have more molasses notes while the finish might have flavors reminiscent of chocolate, candied cherries, and espresso.
4. Understanding pair the sweet wines with food. When pairing any wine with food, it is good to think about whether you are matching one taste to another like taste, or contrasting opposite tastes to each other. Either work perfectly when done the right way. An example of matching like tastes is by pairing port with a dark chocolate. The inherent chocolate notes in a darker port will obviously match up well in a piece of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate also has tannins, which a port obviously has (all red wines, sweet or dry, have tannins). These like tastes will almost act to cancel each other out and point up more subtle flavors in each item. Try this by taking a bite of dark chocolate and chasing it with a small sip of port. An example of matching opposite tastes is by pairing a salty blue cheese with a sweet Riesling. The two together may sound strange, but it is one of the most basic flavor match ups ever: salty and sweet. Instead of one flavor overpowering the other in your mouth, the two combine to create a third taste that doesn't exist independent of the wine and cheese, by themselves. Try this by taking a bite of the blue cheese and following it with a sip of the Riesling.
5. Try your own matchups and experiment. Through trial and error, you'll figure out the other arenas that sweet and semi-sweet wines are perfect for. From Thai food to shellfish to spicy Mexican, the possibilities are virtually endless.
Tags: these wines, alcohol wine, alcohol content, blue cheese, comes from, dark chocolate