Riesling is a versatile wine that can enhance food flavors, including desserts. Many think of Riesling as a sweet wine, but it can be bone dry. But for now, let’s consider the sweet versions of Riesling.  

Taste is subjective; one person’s “sweet” can be another person’s “off-dry” or slightly sweet. A recently purchased Reisling was labeled as sweet. Still, the salesperson told me that this particular Reisling was lightly or faintly sweet (off-dry), and they were right.

Let’s consider a very sweet Reisling, ice wine. Riesling ice wine is expensive because of its production process. Ice wines require a hard freeze sometime after the grapes are ripe. The grapes may have to hang on the vines for months following the normal harvest before being removed from the vines. As Wikipedia states, “If a freeze does not come quickly enough, the grapes may rot, and the crop will be lost. If the freeze is too severe, no juice can be extracted… The longer the harvest is delayed, the more fruit will be lost to wild animals and dropped fruit. Since the fruit must be pressed while frozen, pickers often must work at night or very early in the morning, harvesting the grapes within a few hours, while cellar workers must work in unheated spaces.” It also takes longer for ice wine to ferment, “The high sugar level in the crushed grapes (must) leads to a slower-than-normal fermentation… special strains of yeasts are used. Because of the lower yield of grape musts and the difficulty of processing, ice wines are significantly more expensive than table wines.” Often, this wine is so sweet that it is enjoyed without an accompanying dessert dish.  

Late-harvest wine is made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Late harvest usually indicates a sweet dessert wine, usually Riesling. Late-harvest grapes have been naturally dehydrated while hanging on the vine, concentrating the sugar in the fruit. Late-harvest wines are generally less expensive than ice wine because the production process is shorter and less labor-intensive.

My search for the best dessert wine for sugar cookies with milk chocolate frosting continues. It’s out there. Here’s wishing you sweet endings. Cheers!