In this section we have tried to summarise the complex and diverse range of wine styles, techniques and cellaring potential of sweet wine to help provide a basic understanding and to offer some assistance in choosing your wines. If you would however like to discuss your requirements further, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.
History / Background
It is believed that in the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, many wines were sweet. This is because dry wines were susceptible to air, changes in temperature and movement. They would not have kept well in an era that predated glass bottles and corks. These were not standard until the 16th Century and it was only then that dry wines could be transported with ease and kept for a long time in bottle.
Sweet wine yields tend to be very low because however sweet wines are made, the general principle is that the water content is greatly reduced thereby intensifying the sweetness and flavour of what’s left. Because of this, and when added together with the complications winemakers face in the vineyard, it goes part of the way in explaining the often high cost of sweet wines.
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Wine Styles
There are many different ways of producing sweet wine resulting in a splendid array of wine styles. The broad principal of making sweet wine is to extract as much water from the grapes as possible, leaving concentrated juice which is high in sugar. Sweet wine is then made from this grape juice and yeasts turn the sugar into alcohol. This process is stopped naturally or intentionally before all the residual sugar has been turned to alcohol. Most sweet wines are made in one of five principal methods as follows:
Botrytis (Noble Rot)
The most famous method of all is when grapes are attacked by a mould called Botrytis Cinerea, often referred to as ‘Noble Rot’. This ‘disease’ can ruin a crop if it attacks the wrong type of grape or at the wrong time. But when the conditions are right, with moist foggy mornings and warm sunny days, botrytis concentrates the grapes natural sugar and imparts an unmistakable butter-scotch aroma and flavour to the wine. Because botrytis does not attack all the grapes at once, wine makers often have to make several trips, or ‘tries’ to the vineyard to pick only the most affected grapes.
The most famous region in the world that makes this style of wine is Sauternes in France. However, it is widely believed that it was in the Tokaji region of Hungary where this style of wine was first discovered. The story goes that because the region was under attack from the Turks, harvesting of the grapes was delayed. When they finally got round to picking the grapes they were covered in mould, but they decided to use them anyway.
The result was one of the world’s great sweet wines and the first documented recognition of the importance of botrytis. By the 19th Century, Tokaji wines were the darling of royalty, in particular the Russian tsars.
Passito/Vin Santo
In very hot countries such as Italy, grapes are often allowed to dry out into raisins. This concentrates their sugar, leaving more sugar in the grape juice than the yeasts are able to turn into alcohol. There are several ways to achieve this. The most basic method is to leave the grapes on the vine, sometimes twisting the stems or cutting them to cut off the water supply.
Another method used in Tuscany to make Vin Santo or Straw Wine in New World countries, is to dry out the grapes by hanging them from the ceiling or laying them on straw mats. Vin Santo wines are aged after fermentation in small barriques which are partially exposed to the air to give the wine a slightly oxidised flavour.
Italy produces the greatest number of passito wines but other countries are experimenting in making wine this way including Australia and South Africa. Wines have been made this way for thousands of years.
Icewein (Ice wine)
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In countries where the summers are warm but the winters are very cold, such as Germany and Canada, wine is often made using the Icewein or Ice wine technique. Here the grapes are left on the vine very late in the season allowing the grape to take on a high sugar content. The grapes are often picked in the middle of the night during winter, at temperatures as low as -10C so that the grapes are frozen.
The grapes are then pressed quickly but very gently allowing the frozen water to be retained and the concentrated juice to flow through. While the tendency for Ice wines is to be very sweet, they are superbly balanced with acidity. Canada also makes some interesting sweet red Ice wines.
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Late Harvest
Late Harvest wines are made by leaving the grapes on the vines for a long time to allow the grapes to take on as much residual sugar as possible. Crops which are only partially affected by botrytis are often labeled Late Harvest and countries such as Australia and South Africa where the climatic conditions do not always favour botrytis, often make Late Harvest wines. The wines do not generally offer the unctuous, butter-scotch flavours of botrytis affect wines, but offer instead a refreshing citrus acidity in its place.
Fortified wines
Virtually any grape juice can be converted to sweet wine by adding pure alcohol to the wine before all the sugar has been converted to alcohol. The added alcohol artificially increases the concentration of alcohol in the partially fermented juice, killing off the yeasts and stopping fermentation. The timing of when the pure alcohol is added determines the amount of natural sugar is left in the wine. Wines made with this technique are called fortified wines, but it does not necessarily mean the wine will have a higher alcohol volume.
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Cellaring
The cellaring potential from wine to wine can vary enormously but sweet wines are generally ideal for medium to long term cellaring, so long as they are stored in the correct conditions. This is in part due to acidity, but mainly because the residual sugar content of sweet wine keeps it fresh for many years and it is not unusual for some sweet wines to last for many decades.
As sweet wines age, they tend to take on a golden hue with more concentrated flavours, however many sweet wines are also delicious drunk young. We have suggested the cellaring potential of each of our wines in the wine description.
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