When it comes to wine, it’s really more about the exceptions than the rules. You could be forgiven for thinking that a glass of red should be robust like a Bordeaux or earthy like a California cab. At any rate, it should be “dry,” right? Oh, no, budding wine enthusiast. I’m here to tell you about some red wines that are literally toothsome. It all started when I had my first glass of a fizzy, sweet Lambrusco, along with an Italian dessert pastry featuring dark chocolate and burnt meringue, and life got noticeably better.
Let’s start with the basics: What makes a wine sweet? The answer is simple — the amount of residual sugar left after fermentation. Grapes tend to be sweet, after all, and yeast eats sugar to produce (among other things) alcohol. By stalling the fermentation process (or back sweetening the result), a wine can taste sweet, regardless of whether the grape varietal is red or white. (There’s also a thing called “noble rot,” scientifically known as botrytis cinerea. Although it’s a fungus, it imparts a distinctive sweetness to wines and therefore we love it.) Let’s visit the wonderful world of sweet red wine.
Sparkling sweet reds: It’s a thing
Italians have a thing for sweet red wine. Let’s start with the aforementioned dolce Lambrusco. These guys are odd birds all the way around, and the world is better for it. For one thing, it’s a sparkling wine. Lambrusco comes from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and the name refers both to the wine as well as the grapes from which it’s made.
These wines can run the gamut from dry (“secco”), off-dry (“amiable”), and sweet sweet dolce. What’s cool is that, even at their red berry sweetest, Lambrusco wines have a balancing acidity and earthy tannic structure that’s endlessly pleasing. Other sweet and sparkling Italian reds are Brachetto D’Acqui, a voluptuous, rose-inflected summer sipper, and Rosso Dolce — a “frizzante” (or lightly sparkling) northern Italian wine that tastes of wild blackberries. Honorable mention goes to Australia’s sparkling shiraz: an earthy, spicy red that can also be sweet.
Other semi-sweet red wines
Some normally dry red wines can also be made with a touch of sweetness. Even the normally earthy, robust, and dry Zinfandel grape can be made sweet — and not just via the white wine expression. Late harvest zins almost come across as dessert wines — with notes of anise and black fruit. Leaving the grapes on the vine until the last minute results in a much higher sugar content. Fermented to the desired level of sweetness, late harvest wines will either be “cold stalled” to retain residual sugars (resulting in a lower alcohol content), or fermentation will be stopped and alcohol added, making for a higher ABV fortified wine.
Argentina also offers some amazing late-harvest reds, featuring its superstar earthy Malbec grapes. Whether late harvest or fortified, expect these wines to have signature notes of plum, black cherry, dark chocolate, tobacco, and loam. Yeah, now I want a glass, too.
The big boys
Personally, my absolute favorite red dessert wine is a good, preferably LBV (or late bottled vintage) ruby port. These fortified beauties (along with their tawny counterparts) are from the Douro region of northern Portugal. Many grapes are used to make port (including ones that stop fermentation, leaving residual sugars), but almost all of them are known to be small, with a concentrated sweetness.
Ruby ports tend to be the youngest and fruitiest of the bunch, but you can expect some wonderfully complex flavors from a good one, including black fruit compote and cedar. The other sweet red ports are called tawny, although they’re more orange than red, if I’m being honest. Tawny ports are aged in oak barrels — sometimes for as long as 40 years — and they’re more viscous, complex, and sweet than their ruby counterparts. Port wine also comes in white and rosé versions, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Other countries produce absolute sweet red wine bangers, too: Italy’s version is called Vin Santo, which means “holy wine,” so you can guess how much they’re into it. Vin Santo wines are high in alcohol and boast flavors of caramel, honey, dried apricots, and tropical fruit.
The Roussillon region of France gives us two fortified reds: Maury and Banyuls. These are known as “Vin Doux Naturels,” a type of red fortified wine, which has been made for centuries. Maury is made primarily from spicy, soft Grenache grapes, and tends to be fresh with notes of strawberry preserves. I love to pair this with chocolate. Banyuls is also at least half grenache and also includes flavors of figs, prunes, sweet spices, and chocolate.
.jpg){kind=link}