lgsjr – Page 27 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Crus Bourgeois

When we were young(er) and just beginning to enjoy wine, we thought there were only two sorts of wine: Bordeaux and other. Now, we still love a good Bordeaux and the best of them are among the world’s finest. We knew about the Classified Growths from the 1855 survey but they became more and more expensive, so we drank less of them. And we also recognize that there is a lot of wonderful wine from other countries and regions in France.

Then we discovered the Crus Bourgeois. These are red wines from the Médoc region, which means that St. Emilion and Pomerol, as well as other Right Bank regions are not included. As far back as the 15^th century, these wines were produced on properties of the middle classes, meaning the merchant class, from the cities (or bourgs). The nobility had their grand vineyards and could charge premier prices; the bourgeois were happy just to make and sell good wine.

But the designation became so widely used that there was no reason at one time to believe that a cru bourgeois was any more than plonk. So several times in the 20^th century the growers tried to bring some order to the confusion. In 2003, there was a classification with three levels: just plain Crus Bourgeois, then Supérieur and Exceptionnel. That top tier had only nine châteaux, many of them considered the equivalent (or better) of some Classified Growths. To say the least, the list was controversial and was dropped in 2007 in favor of just one level.

In 2016, they tried again. They returned to the three levels and judged the wines over a five-year period, beginning in 2018. Fairly rigorous standards were published (https://www.crus-bourgeois.com/app/uploads/2020/03/Press-kit-2020-Crus-Bourgeois-du-M%C3%A9doc-Classification.pdf ) and the list was announced this year. Sadly, none of the Crus Bourgeois Exceptionnels from 2003 participated, so such favorites of ours as Chasse-Spleen, Haut-Marbuzet and Ormes de Pez aren’t there.

The selection criteria are rather interesting and are indicative of the direction of the marketplace. Of course, the Cru Bourgeois wines have to meet criteria of taste and aroma. An anonymous blind tasting panel makes the initial cut at what is and is not a Cru Bourgeois. In order to qualify as a Cru Bourgeois Supérieur or Exceptionnel, there are additional considerations. They have to do with the sustainability of the agriculture in the vineyards and winery. They also deal with management’s actions “to optimize the character of the wine (vineyard, harvest, winery, bottling, quality assurance system)”.

A real eye-opener for those of us who might travel to Bordeaux for wine tasting, one of the criteria for the advanced designations is the “quality of reception of visitors”. In other words, to be a Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, these wineries must offer an exceptional experience for those who come to sample the wine in their tasting rooms. Of course, we at Power Tasting are delighted with this development. The “quality of reception” is an expression of a winery’s attitude towards their customers, not least the ones who care enough to come to visit. The fact that the way they treat wine tasters can affect a wine’s recognition and sales, shows again that wine tasters can affect the market for wine.

Wine Tasters Can Affect the Market

It is well known that wines in many parts of the world taste different than they did a generation ago. Perhaps those with superior taste memories can testify to what wines used to smell and taste like, but all of us can be aware of certain changes. Taken overall, today’s red wines are more robust, more alcoholic, ready to drink at a younger age and more likely to come from a large corporation. Whites are also more alcoholic and more full-bodied; in most of the world, they are quite likely to be either Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, to the exclusion of other grapes.

How did this happen?

Some attribute this, with some justification, to the influence of wine critics, in particular Robert Parker. Others see the broadening of the market to include younger, less experienced wine drinkers whose tastes run towards boldness rather than subtlety. The trends may be attributable to better science and technology that make bigger, more alcoholic wines easier to produce.

A wine tasting focus group. Photo courtesy of Find Focus Groups.

The simplest answer is that wine producing companies and their winemakers have simply responded to the demands of the wine-buying marketplace. They are catering to the tastes of the people who are buying wine. That makes sense, but how do they know? They surely hold focus groups and monitor retail sales, but these are fairly blunt instruments. Focus groups don’t necessarily tap into a meaningful cross-section of the people who buy most of the wine. And sales figures reflect a lot more than taste. Price, location, pretty labels and bottles, and the dominance of certain distributors also enter into the calculation. How else to explain the past popularity of Two Buck Chuck?

A big factor in influencing the producers is the feedback that wineries receive from visitors in their tasting rooms, who are the more avid sector of the wine-drinking public. Those of us who enjoy traveling to sample wines can offer direct and immediate feedback to the wineries. They can see what people prefer, up close and personal. Do most visitors smile at that unoaked Chardonnay or do they wince and pour it out? Are the people who are enjoying a 16% alcohol Zinfandel just partiers out to get drunk or are they expressing pleasure at the fullness and depth of flavor that extra ripeness bring along with the alcohol?

There are things that we can do to affect the market when we go wine tasting.

Speak up. Let the server know what you like and why. If you get a chance to chat with the winemaker or the tasting room manager, be vocal about your likes and dislikes.
Ask questions. If you have been familiar with a wine for a long period of time and it seems different to you now, it’s fair to ask if that’s the case and why it’s happens. Not all tasting room employees are knowledgeable enough to answer these questions, but if you are just a little persistent, they’ll find someone who is.
Vote with your wallet. If you particularly like a certain wine, buy some right there in the winery. If you really like the broad production of a winery, join their wine club. The bean counters (or are they grape counters?) in the back office are acutely aware of who their locked-in buyers are and what they like.

Wine tasting voyagers have the power to influence what wineries produce. So go ahead and use your power. That’s what Power Tasting is all about.

Pézenas, France

Pézenas is a quiet commune of 8,000 souls, nestled in the uplands of the Languedoc. As with most villages in that region, wines are made all around it, mostly blends of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. Because of the schist soil, the wines there tend to be a bit stony. If you are in the region for wine tasting, you should also stop to visit the village.

The local tourist people make a big deal about Molière, who lived there for awhile in the 1650s. His great acclaim came in Paris later on, but the people of Pézenas claim him as a “local boy made good” to this day. You’ll find a statue of the great playwright across from the Brasserie Molière and the Grand Hotel Molière. There’s a pretty row of cafés there, but they’re rather touristy.

Along the Cours Jean Jaurès in Pézenas, with the Collégiale Saint-Jean in the background.

You should definitely explore the eateries in Pézenas. On the advice of a local gentleman out walking his dog, we had a superb three-course meal, with wine, for under fifty euros for two people. Just taking a coffee along the delightfully decorated main drag, the Cours Jean Jaurès, and you know you’re in France.

On that same street, the Piscenois (for so the local inhabitants call themselves) host a grand outdoor market every Saturday. It takes up the entire center of town and is well-attended by the townspeople and tourists alike.

All the above are great reasons to visit Pézenas. Best of all, nestled within the charming village is a medieval one. It has been preserved, cleaned up and adorned with the sorts of shops and galleries that tourists seem to adore. Yes, we could have done with a few less chocolateries, but it is fair to say that people in the Middle Ages must have walked these narrow streets to buy their bread and olives, so why should we scoff at the commerce that makes this little corner of history possible.

The town square in medieval Pézenas.

You enter through a stone portal on the aforementioned Cours Jean Jaurès and you find yourself carried back eight centuries. You have choice of streets to follow. To the right you’ll eventually find yourself in the ancient town square. There you can stop for a meal or a drink and pretend to be a few centuries older than you are. From there, too, you can choose from among several streets, alleys really, in which to wander.

The ancient ghetto of Pézenas.

Everywhere you turn, you’re likely to find something to delight your eyes. Here there’s a fountain, there a statue, up the street a merchant’s house that you’re welcome to inspect. We found most moving the ancient Jewish ghetto. Yes, even then, even here, discrimination flourished. Of course, today this section holds housing for all who can afford it.

That is the overall attraction of Pézenas. Side by side you find the contemporary, memories of greatness and a wonderfully preserved bit of long-ago times. And all surrounded by the vineyards of Languedoc!

Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery

As you drive along Dry Creek Road towards the northern end of the valley of the same name, you suddenly come upon what appears to be a Tuscan villa. It is, in fact, the Ferrari-Carano winery, which they call Villa Fiore. Regular Power Tasting readers know that we are not big fans of Napa palaces, even when they are in Sonoma County. But we make an exception for Ferrari-Carano. Why? Because it really is lovely and they don’t rub your nose in how wonderful they are. They don’t pretend to be a Persian temple or a medieval castle. They just serve wine in a very pretty setting.

The Ferrari-Carano winery. Photo courtesy of Ferrari-Carano.

Before you enter, you pass through well-planted and maintained flower gardens. The gardens are dotted with statuary; don’t miss the one of the seated wild boar. You haven’t had a drop of wine yet and you already love the place.

The view from Ferrari-Carano’s terrace. Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Tourism.

Once inside, you have several choices. On the main floor they serve their mass-market wines, which are the bulk of their production. Downstairs is what they call the Enoteca, where Ferrari-Carano’s top-end wines are served. Finally, you can sit on their terrace – oh, excuse us, Il Terrazzo – and sip while looking over some of their vineyards. That view really is beautiful and should be taken in whether you taste on the terrace or not.

We recommend that you try the wines in the Enoteca. For one thing, they are their better ones but are also more expensive. That’s relative, though. In these days when it is common for a winery’s top bottles to go for three digits, it’s refreshing to go wine-tasting somewhere where the most expensive current release wines go for under $70. We don’t review wines, just the tasting experience, but it is fair to say that we usually find some wines we like and often buy a few bottles to take home with us.

That tasting room is well appointed and we have found the servers to be more knowledgeable. (Or perhaps they just more enjoy talking about the reserve wines.) On one wall is a painting that is reproduced on the label of Ferrari-Carano’s Bordeaux blend, Trésor, and is worth more than a glance.

There are many wineries, even ones we like, where we taste their wines quickly and then move along our way. Ferrari-Carano was built for lingering. The fact that the tasting fees and bottle prices are reasonable may inspire you to travel up Dry Creek Road. The villa, the gardens, the fountains and the art are quite admirable and combine to invite you stay and sip. We recommend that you accept the invitation.

Atmosphere: Party Time

This article is the first of what will be an irregular series on how the atmosphere at a winery and its tasting room influences the wine tasting experience, your appreciation of the wines, and the impressions you keep when you look back on your visit and the wines you tried. We may overstate the case occasionally to make a point, but our thoughts on the subject are drawn from years of experience.

There are sectors of Wine Country where the reason to go seems more to party down than to gain an understanding of the products made there. Some of these are in up-and-coming areas that attract a lot of young people. In that regard, Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone and many Long Island wineries, both especially on the weekends, come to mind. But we have come across this same atmosphere in older, more established regions, such as Napa Valley, as well.

Long Island’s Winery Dogs. Photo courtesy of CrypticRock.

What are the hallmarks of a party winery? The most prominent seems to be rock or rap music, played very loud. On Long Island’s North Fork, there are quite a few wineries that feature live bands on the weekend. And they’re not top tier either; more likely they’re the local bar band.

Another clue is pizza by the pool. There are some wineries that have pizza ovens on premises and others that let a pizza truck pull up outside. We have nothing against either pizza or swimming pools. In fact, we like both very much. But not with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, which may cost more than $100 a bottle, in our hands and with the noise around us.

And that’s the point: No company that’s serious about its product should cheapen its brand. The wines appropriate for a party atmosphere are light, fruity and refreshing. They are in the league of what you might expect to drink in a bar where the choice is only red or white. We all drink them from time to time, but we wouldn’t make a special trip to try them. For those who do, the objective is the party, not the wine.

It saddens us when we come across wineries that make high-quality wines (at top prices) that act more like hosts than winemakers. As we understand it, they think it helps them to differentiate themselves in a crowded tourist market. But as a representative of Long Island’s Pellegrini Vineyards told us, “No one stands out if they all do it. We’d prefer to differentiate ourselves on our wine.”

If you are interested in discovering great wine and instead you discover that a party has broken out, there are several things you can do. One would be to get back in the car and go elsewhere, but then you might miss some fine wines. But are you really missing them if you can’t enjoy them as they deserve? We submit that great wine just doesn’t taste the same when there is extraneous distraction all around.

Perhaps there are some quiet corners of a tasting room where you can sip your wine in peace. That does work, but it is likely that service will be slower, because the personnel are taking care of the party crowd.

Another tactic is to avoid visiting on weekends, which isn’t a bad idea on its own merits. Many of the wineries only get the party going then, so peace and quiet prevail the rest of the week. In some cases, even on weekdays the music is loud and the pizza is available, but the partiers aren’t there so it’s not as bad.

We assure you that if you do visit one of these party palaces, it will be the party you remember years from now, not the wine.

Red vs. White

In certain European corners of Wine Country, there are laws that determine what sort of wine can be made there. To use two examples near each other, in the Northern Rhône winemakers in Condrieu must only make white wine. Down the road a piece in Cornas, they are restricted to red wine and only Syrah at that. We Americans (and Australians and Sicilians, too) are more used to visiting wineries in our own country, where almost all make both red and white wines.

Now, we at Power Tasting have a preference for red wine. We have been known to say, only half facetiously, that white wine is something to do with your hands at parties. But when we enter a tasting room, we are almost invariably offered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay to begin our introduction to their wines. Should we go ahead and sip something we’re less likely to enjoy or skip right ahead to the red wines?

Photo courtesy of Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits

There are good reasons for either decision. Among those in favor of trying the whites are:

It’s worthwhile to be open-minded. It’s not as though we dislike white wines, we just don’t like them as much. So if we try it, we might like it. After all, we do eat dinners of fish and salad, especially in the summer. It’s a good idea to develop our noses and taste buds for the wines that go with those meals, too.
You learn a lot about a winery by sampling the complete range of a winemaker’s art. If we are particularly enamored by, say, the Cabernet Sauvignon at a particular winery why not try the Sauvignon Blanc as well? We’re pretty sure that the winemaker didn’t consider it an afterthought. Care and attention go into all the wines. No one goes to a concert and listen only to the violins, so why leave out a part of what a winery has to offer?

On the other hand…

Don’t waste your precious alcohol capacity. If we are going to be tasting all day, we are going to take in a lot of alcohol. We have techniques to preserve sobriety (sharing, pouring out, sipping gently and others) but we – and everyone – need to be conscious of the risk and of our own level of intake. So if we know at the outset that we won’t enjoy white wines as much as reds, there’s a good reason not to add to the load.
The idea is to enjoy yourself. We go wine tasting for many reasons and education is indeed one of them. So if we do take some white wine, we are being broadminded and dutiful. But are we having fun? If the answer is “no”, then maybe it’s not worth doing. It’s wine, for Pete’s sake, not spinach.

As can be seen, there’s no universally correct answer. We tend to go both ways, often with both white and red wine early in the day and only red as the shadows get longer. And of course if you favor white wines over reds, all the above applies in reverse.

The Little Wine Shop

This story occurred in Taormina, a resort town on the cliffs above the Mediterranean, on the east coast of Sicily. But it could have been anywhere.

The bay o\f Taormina

We checked into our hotel and, as we had reserved, saw that we had a large terrace attached to our room, with a motor-driven shade that made it tolerable to sit there in the heat of the afternoon Sicilian sun. The view was so gorgeous, we knew immediately that we had to have a bottle of white wine for sipping while admiring the view. So we asked the front desk where we might buy some and they recommended a shop a few blocks away (and up the hill), called Mamma Mia.

Mamma Mia enoteca. Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor.

Mamma Mia! Could there be anything more stereotypical than a shop by that name. (Actually, the sign in front said, in English, New Mamma Mia, so maybe there was an old one somewhere.)

One side of the shop was a convenience store cum salumeria, the other an enoteca. Both sides were presided over by a young man named Fernando. As we entered, he was selling olives to another couple who then wanted some wine. They didn’t speak Italian and Fernando didn’t understand whatever language they spoke but it became clear that they were looking for a cool, refreshing and inexpensive wine.

After they left it was our turn and we guessed Fernando thought that two more foreigners would want the cheap stuff, too. That wasn’t what we were after and in our broken Italian we made that clear to him. So he pulled a few biancos off the wall that cost around twenty euros apiece. We decided to buy one if he had it on ice but then asked if he had anything better or, in fact, to show us his best wine. (This entailed a lot of hand motions, a little English, maybe a word or two of French and whatever Italian we could dredge up from our limited vocabulary.)

So he reached back and showed us a bottle of white wine for forty euros, which he said was his best and most expensive. He was a little apprehensive about suggesting such a high-priced wine but also a little eager to show some interested visitors what he considered to be the best of Sicily. So in addition to the one we had already chosen, we took the top wine, which he did not have refrigerated. We had a small fridge in our room, so we bought some olives, a piece of cheese and some sausage and went back to our hotel to enjoy the view.

The ”special” wine

The next day we had our little feast for lunch and opened the “special’ wine. It was a Duca di Salaparuta Bianca di Valguarnera Bianco Terre Siciliane, and it was among the most enjoyable white wines we had ever tasted. But it’s only available in Italy, maybe only in Sicily. During our stay in Taormina, we became regulars at Mamma Mia’s enoteca and salumeria.

Moral of the story: in your travels, when you want a good bottle of wine, ask where the locals shop and get their best. You’ll rarely be disappointed.

Champagne Tribaut-Schlosser

This story begins in the province of Québec and ends in France. About a year ago, a friend in Québec City told us about a great value for an inexpensive champagne she had tasted and liked very much. It was called Tribaut and it only cost 40 Canadian dollars or roughly 30 American. We tried it and liked it very much and have been buying it since then. So when we took a recent wine tasting trip to the Champagne region of France, we made a special point of visiting their winery.

The Champagne wine trade is concentrated in two cities, Reims and Epernay. But the Champagne region is quite large and there are thousands of wineries there. Many of them are small producers located in countryside villages. So we did the usual 21^st century thing and looked up Tribaut on the web, got their address and used Google Maps to lead us there. Unfortunately, that led us to a winery called G. Tribaut in the village of Hautvilliers. When we realized we were not at the place that we were looking for, they were kind enough to point us to Tribaut-Schlosser, not far away in Romery. Fortunately, the scenery in between was gorgeous. We were there during the vendanges (harvest) and were able to see the workers in the vineyards hand-picking the grapes, which we had the pleasure of tasting directly from the vine.

Between Hautvilliers and Romery

On arrival, we found a pretty house but hardly what we Americans think of as a major winery when we go wine tasting. Tribaut-Schlosser is hardly small – they produce 350,000 bottles each year – but they are tiny compared with grandes maisons like Moet & Chandon or Taittinger. Still, everything is low key at Tribaut-Schlosser. When we entered, we found an empty reception area. We called out to see if anyone was there and a woman came down to greet us. She was pleased to offer us a dégustation, since evidently they don’t receive many visitors who just happen to be passing through Romery.

Tribaut-Schlosser makes an impressive number of Champagnes. Their basic offering, Origine, is an Assemblage (in this case, 50% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir). Their Blanc de Blanc (which they call Blanc de Champagne) is the one we had tasted in Québec. There’s also a rosé, a Blanc de Noir and a tête du cuvée they call Cuvée René. They also have two limited edition Champagnes, a brut and a rosé they refer to as Les Cuvées Authentique which we did not try. After a pretty thorough tasting, we found we preferred the Blanc de Champagne that we were already familiar with and which is available in Québec.

Even though they were all so busy with the harvest, we were treated like visiting royalty. We were seated in a cozy tasting room, more like someone’s living room, on a sofa in front of a barrel that served as a cocktail table. Our host thought nothing of opening bottle after bottle; she didn’t want us to sample any wines that had already been opened. The assistant winemaker stopped by as did a member of the Tribaut family. (It seems that a Tribaut ancestor married a Schlosser back in the early 20^th century.) They were all so charming, it was as though we had dropped in on old friends.

You’re really going to have to drive a bit to find Champagne Tribaut-Schlosser. But we certainly found it worth the effort.

Visiting Napa/Noma in September

In Wine Country, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, September is a glorious month, the time when all of a year’s work comes to fruition. It is a beautiful month; the hot summer days are gone and comfortable weather is there to enjoy long walks and outings.

In Napa Valley and Sonoma County, which we refer to as Napa/Noma, you will see pickers in the vineyards filling baskets with grapes. Huge harvesters will be gathering grapes on an industrial scale. And even though the wineries are open for tastings, you will see people scurrying to fulfill the hundreds of tasks that change grapes into juice into wine.

Destemming the grapes before they get crushed.

As visitors, you get to share in the excitement without the necessity of doing any hard work. Many wineries curtail tours during the crush, primarily for reasons of safety as well as keeping tourists out of the way of the workers. What you see in the vineyards reminds you that wine is agriculture; in the working parts of the wineries, you remember that wine is industry, too.

There are advantages to visiting Napa/Noma in September other than observing the harvest. The weather is foremost among them. It can still be quite warm, especially in the earlier weeks of the month. You can plan on taking a dip in the pool after a day’s tastings. However, the mornings can be cool and damp and it’s a good idea to have a sweater in your bag, because temperatures sometimes cool off in the evenings.

And speaking of evenings, the late summer/early autumn sunsets come in right about aperitif time. Sitting on a terrace or by the pool with a glass of local wine just adds to the pleasures of being in Napa/Noma.

There are fewer cars on the roads, particularly Napa Valley’s Route 29, because many of the summer vacationers are back at work. That means fewer little children in the tasting rooms, as well. On the other hand, the harvesters and the bins carrying grapes to the crushers use the same roads as the cars, so traffic can still get backed up.

In the first weeks of September, you’ll see the vines heavy with grapes. You can even – shh, don’t tell – sneak a grape to taste. You’ll find that wine grapes are far sweeter than any fruit you’re likely taste at the supermarket. Alas, by the end of the month, you may have to keep your eyes peeled to see any laden vines left.

For the most part, restaurants and tasting rooms are still pretty busy in September, especially on the weekends. Hotel rooms are somewhat difficult to find, too, since so many people want to be in Napa/Noma for the crush. It’s best to book a room well in advance. You’ll be able to get a table for dinner on the same day, but if there’s a place you’re particularly eager to try it’s best to make an advance reservation.

The wines taste the same in February as they do in September and you might even find more of a selection of wines to taste early in the year. But for real wine lovers, there is a certain thrill to tasting wine as it is being made that can’t be experienced as well at any other time of year.

Tasting Dessert Wines

Back in the day, there was a pop song called, “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”. That singer wasn’t talking about an ultra-brut Champagne or a Chianti. Today, most people who enjoy wine tasting are sipping table wines, not dessert wines. Sweet wines have been around since Biblical times, but they aren’t the focus of winemaking in most parts of Wine Country.

Sauternes grapes, shriveled with botrytis. Photo courtesy of Decanter.com.

Now there are some great sweet wines available. The best known are from Sauternes in France and Portugal, with Château d’Yquem the best known in the former and a lot of great producers of the latter. There is Passito from Sicily, or more properly from the tiny island of Pantelleria near Sicily. In Valpolicella you can find Recioto, which is Amarone for which they stop fermentation while much of the sugars remain. The Australians make some great ones and call them “stickies”. And many Canadian and American wineries make fine dessert wines as well. But with some notable exceptions, these sweet wines are the encore, not the main show.

Photo courtesy of Wine Enthusiast.

If you’re in most of Wine Country and you want to find out what the wineries have to offer for after-dinner sipping, there are some things you ought to do.

Find out if they have dessert wines. Few wineries list dessert wines on their tasting lists, but many have some below the bar. When you’ve finished your allotted tastes, there’s nothing wrong with asking, “Do you make a sweet wine”. Note that we don’t recommend asking if they have any available for tasting. Many wineries only make dessert wines when conditions (weather, size of the crop, spread of a fungus) permit. So they may make some but not have it for tasting. By asking as we suggest, you stay on the right side of politeness.
Know what you’re tasting. Too many California wineries make what they call a Port, but really they’re just red dessert wines, never approaching what you can find in Portugal. Whites include late harvest, ice wines (and fakes made by putting grapes in the freezer) and wines made from grapes affected by botrytis, a fungus also known as the Noble Rot. These are listed in order of rarity and cost. They each have their own character, some but not all of which is apparent at a wine tasting. The best ones change in color, sweetness, density and concentration as they age. What you’re going to get in a tasting room are young wines, which may very well be your preference. But remember that the ages of Ports and Madeiras are measured in decades.
Sip s-l-o-w-l-y. If a winery has a dessert wine available for tasting, you’re likely to get one or two thimblefuls, served in a tiny glass. Take a small sip and let it spread in your mouth. Think about the flavors: honey, peach, pear, citrus, honeysuckle and other delights. Then, once your mouth has been primed, try another sip. It may not seem the same, because you’ve passed the shock of the sugars on your tongue. This is when the real character of a dessert wine becomes apparent.

Dessert wines are made from shriveled grapes, in which the juice is extremely concentrated. Naturally, you don’t get a lot of wine from a bunch of scrawny grapes and that’s what makes dessert wines so expensive. They are often sold in half-bottles, so maybe allow yourself a luxury purchase after you’ve tasted some that you liked.