Mythbusters: Sweet Wines Are Not Low Quality

Ep 152

Sweet wine has been associated with having an unrefined palate or being a beginner in the wine world. But that does not automatically mean you are a wine amateur if you like sweet wine.

In this Mythbusters episode, we are setting the record straight. Sweet wine does not equal low quality. While there are plenty of mass produced sugary bottles out there, sweetness itself is just another attribute of wine, right alongside acidity, tannin, and body. When made with intention and quality grapes, sweet wine can be balanced, complex, and can even rank among the most expensive wines in the world.

You will learn how noble rot works, why ice wine is so rare, how Port is fortified, and why balance between sugar and acidity is everything. From Sauternes in Bordeaux to Tokaji in Hungary, Vin Santo in Italy, Recioto della Valpolicella, Port, and Pedro Ximénez sherry, there are sweet wines being made all over the world that are high quality, traditional, and in many cases some of the most sought after bottles out there. You will also hear why sweet wines are incredible with salty, spicy, and even funky cheeses.

So if you have ever felt like ordering a sweet wine makes you look like a beginner, this episode is for you.

Thank you to our exclusive sponsor, Last Bubbles, for sponsoring this episode. Download the Last Bubbles app or go to www.lastbubbles.com and use code CORKANDFIZZ for 10% off your order! (And be sure to sign up for their mailing list so you never miss a bottle!)

Resources:

12 Wines I’d Recommend to Any Curious Wine Drinker - https://www.corkandfizz.com/blog/guide-to-wine-podcast-episode-136

Episode Highlights:

• Where the sweet wine stereotype began
• Why sweetness is just another wine attribute
• How noble rot concentrates flavor
• Why Sauternes can cost thousands
• How true ice wine is made and why it is rare
• The difference between Amarone and Recioto
• How Port is fortified and why it is strong
• Why sweet wines pair well with salty and spicy foods
• How sugar helps wine age

Transcript

0:00

If you love sparkling wine as much as I do, you'll love today's sponsor, Last Bubbles. They feature one handpicked bottle of champagne, prosecco, or other bubbly every day at up to 70% off. I'll share more later, but for now, be sure to download the Last Bubbles app or go to lastbubbles.com and use code corkandfizz for 10% off. Interested in learning about wine but not sure where to start? You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. I'm your host, Hailey Bohlman, and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and founder of the Seattle-based wine tasting business Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable and lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or a total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. We are on to another episode of the Mythbuster miniseries where I debunk wine myths new and old, give you the straight facts. Well, plus, plus a couple of my own opinions, but this is my podcast after all. Today we're going to be talking about the myth— well, we are going to be debunking the myth that all sweet wines are low quality. As a reminder, yes, I know these episodes are a little bit shorter. It might also sound like I just ran a marathon. I am currently recording these in preparation for my maternity leave and am— what, what am I now? 35 weeks pregnant. So we have that to blame for the out of breathness. Hopefully my manager has helped so you don't hear quite as many of the deep breaths that I take while I'm talking. But all that to say, they're a little bit shorter than normal because I'm trying to get a lot of these prepped so you can have a new episode every single Wednesday. But if this is not long enough for you and you have normally have a longer commute, or you'd like to listen to these on your walk, you can go check out my backlog. Every single episode I've ever recorded is available to you. And since this is episode 152, that means there are 151 other episodes. And even if you've listened to every single one of them, just go back to the beginning and see what they were like from the start. Hopefully, hopefully they're pretty good. I don't know, maybe you shouldn't go all the way back to the beginning from when I was just first doing this. Um, but you have plenty to choose from. So, so go pick one of those. If this isn't quite enough for you. But first, stick around, listen to this one. I have some fun things to say. Okay. Starting with the myth, I feel like there are a few things where this myth comes from. First of all, sweet wine is often a starting point for many in their wine journey. 1 in 3 new wine consumers start with a sweet wine according to the National Consumer Panel. And I think due to this, sweet wine has been associated with having an unrefined palate or being a beginner in the wine world. But that doesn't automatically mean you're a wine amateur if you like sweet wine. And then it also doesn't help the second reason. The second reason that I think this myth exists is that there are a lot of poorly made, mass-produced sweet wines, especially in the US. Many low-quality wine producers use sweetness to disguise a bad wine. If you add some sugar, that'll make it drinkable. We don't need top quality grapes. We'll just get whatever you have. We'll add some sugar to it. That'll make it drinkable. And thus it's easy to believe that if you want to be taken seriously in the wine world, you need to drink non-sweet wine, or you should be ashamed if you like sweet wine. But the thing is, not all sweet wines are like this. That is a complete myth. And I'm gonna tell you why. Just a quick reminder, if you are not on my mailing list yet, what are you waiting for? I would love for you to join. When you do, you'll get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under $15. Head to corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips, recommendations, special offers, and so much more. Now let's get back to the show. The fact is, sweetness is just another attribute of wine. Just like acidity, tannin, body, it's just another quality of the wine. When a wine is made right, sweetness can enhance the wine and contribute to really amazing flavors and textures. But the winemaker has to set out to make a good wine from the get-go. And this starts in the vineyard with quality grapes. And oftentimes making a sweet wine and getting these quality grapes can actually include risky but very rewarding techniques in the vineyard, such as allowing botrytis to affect your grapes. This is a noble rot. We'll talk a little bit more about this later. Late harvest, keeping those grapes on the vine as long as you can and crossing your fingers that Mother Nature cooperates with you, or waiting even longer, and letting the grapes freeze on the vine, right? So when making a sweet wine, and if they're using any of these techniques, they're actually putting even more effort into making this wine than they would a typical dry or non-sweet wine. Then of course, when making the wine, the winemaker needs to find balance. Some of the best sweet wines have the perfect tension between acidity and sweetness. Think of this as like making the perfect glass of lemonade, right? You wouldn't want to make lemonade with just the acidity, right? If we just got lemon juice and water, I don't think we'd be pretty happy with our lemonade, right? We need some sugar in there to help counteract that acidity, and we want just enough sugar and just enough tartness or acidity from the lemon juice for those to cooperate together. And if you do this, if the winemaker does this right, you avoid that syrupy texture that is often associated with a lower quality sweet wine. Now, speaking of some of the best sweet wines, did you know that some of the most expensive wines around the world are actually sweet wines? And one of the best examples of this is Sauternes. Sauternes is a famous sweet wine, dessert wine, out of Bordeaux, France. It is made using a Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes that have experienced noble rot. Noble rot or botrytis— it goes by both names— is essentially where the grapes are dried out, and it's due to this spore called Botrytis cinerea, and it causes a hole to form in the grape skin. And then what that hole does is it allows all the water in that grape to evaporate out. So you're simply left with the juice and the just really concentrated flavor of the grapes. I know calling it a rot really makes it sound like, are you sure you should use those grapes? But it's actually, I don't know who learned that this was totally fine and safe and actually a great thing to do, but thank you to them because these grapes then when pressed and made into a delicious wine. It is such an experience. And some of the— you can get Sauternes for not a lot of money, but some of the top ones are like thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. And it is really like, when you talk to many wine experts, it is like one of their dreams in life to try one of the top Sauternes out of Bordeaux, right? And so if that tells you anything, that me— tells you that not all sweet wines are low quality. Some of these are some of the hardest to make., and they'll cost some of the, you know, most amount of money in order to obtain them. While I'm talking about Sauternes, there are many other sweet wines around the world that are really, really special. So I thought it'd be fun to kind of go through some of those. So in case you are a sweet wine fan or you're curious about dessert wine, you can kind of use this list to guide you and, and give you a good start and realize that no, not all of them are Sutter Home, you know, $5 bottles. From the grocery store that kind of just tastes like syrup. If you like that, I'm sorry, that might have been a little insulting, but a lot of times those, those wineries are not using quality grapes, right? We are talking about the sweet dessert wines, quality grapes, quality winemaking, high-end wines. Okay. The next wine that I wanna talk about is Tokaji Azu. Now this is a wine that comes out of Hungary. It is also made with noble rot grapes. And one of the things too that I have to say about this noble rot is it's not as easy as just like applying the spore to the grapes. You need this, I think almost— I can't imagine I've ever had heard of this happening like manmade, like it needs to happen naturally. And so you need to have the perfect conditions. And what it is, is usually you are near some body of water cuz you want some amount of humidity. Especially in the mornings, I believe, but then you need it to drift off during the day. Cuz if you just allow that humidity to stick around all day, you're gonna get some not great forms of rot and not great forms of mildew. But if you have it just enough, you have this noble rot happen, right? So we need that with our Sauternes, but we also need it with this Tokaji Azu. And these are made from ferment grapes, which you may have never heard of, out of Hungary. Similar flavor to the Sauternes, which actually I didn't tell you what the flavors were. This wine a lot of times has that beautiful balance between acidity and sweetness. It's gonna have some kind of peachy apple kind of flavors. I also get a lot of honey and nuttiness from it. It's just a really delicious, unctuous wine. Okay, next up is a wine called Vin Santo, and this is a dessert wine out of Italy. Today's podcast is brought to you by Last Bubbles. Your online destination for incredible sparkling wine at unbelievable prices. If you know me, you know I'm a total sucker for a great bottle of bubbles. Sparkling wine should not be saved for special occasions. Instead, I think you pop bubbly to make the occasion special. Plus, it pairs with everything from oysters and caviar to popcorn on Tuesday nights. So it's honestly a no-brainer to keep a bottle chilled and ready in the fridge. Last Bottle makes that easy by featuring one handpicked sparkling wine every day, from champagne to cava to pét-nat, all at 30 to 70% off retail. Their team tastes through hundreds of bottles, so what you see each day is truly worth popping. Every offer also comes with tasting notes, pairing ideas, and stories about the farmers and winemakers behind the wine, plus a bubbles glossary that explains things like Method traditionnel, pet-nat, and dosage. They even have a brand new Last Bubbles app, making it easier than ever to discover your next favorite bottle. So go download the app or visit lastbubbles.com and use code corkandfizz for 10% off your next order. In order to make this wine again, we're going to dry out the grapes. We're going to kind of have them turn into raisins and press those. But instead of letting noble rot do the job, the grapes are laid out on straw mats before they are pressed to make wine. These wines are usually made with Trebbiano and Malvegia grapes, and it has this rich, nutty, date-like flavor. There are several types of Vin Santo made throughout Italy, so you'll see it called, like, Vin Santo de— Vin Santo de Chianti, Vin Santo de something, but they're all made in this style of drying out the grapes first. I remember the first time I tried Vin Santo was actually in Italy, and I specifically remember they poured it at the end, and I remember smelling it and being like, holy crap, that has a lot of alcohol. And the crazy thing is it's— there's a lot of that alcohol smell, but the wine is actually really only about 13% alcohol, which is kind of in our like medium range. And it's not overly thick, so you're not, you know, it's not a syrupy wine. And what they recommend is dipping, you typically get like a biscotti, and so you dip the biscotti in the Vin Santo, and they're meant to kind of like pair with each other. Okay. Next up is a wine called Eiswein, and this should sound like ice wine, but there's actually— the German name for it is Eiswein. It's E-I-S-W-E-I-N. This is a true icewine, extremely rare, very

expensive. Reason for that: 12:57

one, it only occurs in bizarre years when a vineyard freezes, and two, icewine has to be harvested and pressed while the grapes are still frozen. So the winemaker needs to wait long enough for the grapes to freeze, hope that Mother Nature doesn't take his grapes away from him or take her grapes away from her, and then they have to get all the grapes in when it's freezing cold and press them while they're still frozen. And this basically acts very similar to the drying out of the grapes where The water is all frozen, so when you press it, you're only getting the juice. It's a very concentrated wine. These can be made in lots of different parts of the world. Like I said, Eiswein is the German name for it that you will see, but you can see Eiswein— popular area that it comes out of is actually Canada in the Niagara region. I'm also seeing a lot of this in the Midwest being made, which is really cool and interesting. And other areas can make it as well, as long as they can get cold enough. Okay. The next one I wanna talk about is "Rosiotto de Valpolicella." And I actually have a full episode all about Valpolicella if you wanna learn more about this wine. This is actually the wine— if you ever heard of Amarone— Amarone de Valpolicella. It's the same thing, right? So this style, the Rosiotto, is the dessert version. And this wine is made in the same painstaking process as Amarone is, which means, again, the grapes that are used to make the wine are shriveled on our straw mats. Normally with Amarone, what happens is that you will crush the dried grapes and you'll get the juice, and then you'll let it ferment until there's no sugar left. So you end up with pretty high levels of alcohol. With Recioto, you stop the fermentation, and so you end up with similar flavors, but a lower alcohol and some sweetness left behind. So it's very lush, bold, and rich. Now, a sweet wine you may have heard of before, Port. There are many different styles of Port. I'd say one that's kind of on the higher end is vintage Port, and this is a wine that is meant to be aged 20 to even up to 50 years before drinking. Port, and especially vintage Port, is a rare, sweet red wine that's made with dozens of Portuguese traditional grapes, some of them including "trigo nacional," "trigo franca," and "tinta-rois." These grapes are then collected and fermented together in open tanks where the grapes are stomped daily as the wine begins to ferment. Then at a point during the fermentation, the wine is strained and blended with a clear grape spirit. This stops the fermentation and fortifies the wine. So you end up with higher alcohol and higher sugar. So I will warn, Port is one of those— if you've ever seen one of those tiny little wine glasses, that's what you pour Port into because you do not want a full glass of Port. And if you do, you should stop at one because trust me, you're not going to realize it has as much alcohol as it does. Because it just tastes so good. It tastes like dessert. If you're a dessert fan, you will love this and it— you will not realize how much alcohol is in it. Okay. And then last but not least, there are lots of different versions of sherry and a dessert version is called Pedro Ximénez. So sherry comes from Andalucía, Spain. These wines are made using Palomino or Pedro Ximénez grapes. Along with muscatel grapes. These wines are produced where they are purposely oxidized, so they develop this really nutty aromatic. Some of them are fermented all the way through, so we don't end up with any sugar, but a Pedro Ximénez, also called a PX sherry, will have sugar left over. I'm still learning to love dry sherry, the one that doesn't have any sugar left over, but Pedro Ximénez sherry, mm, I'll drink that any day of the week. It is delicious. And so I hope hearing about these different styles of wine and how they're made all around the world, and they are high quality, they are expensive, not always, but a lot of the times, and there's a lot of history and tradition behind them. You are now convinced that sweet wine does not always mean low quality. And I hope you feel confident asking for a sweet wine when you go out to eat or when you are at the store. There is nothing wrong.— with enjoying a sweet wine. Plus, I mean, one of the other major benefits— I mean, there's actually many benefits, two of them that I can think of off the top of my head. Many sweet wines age really well because of that added sugar. It helps preserve the wine, so it makes them really amazing collector's items. And sweet wine doesn't have to pair with dessert. You don't have to have it at dessert. It actually pairs really well with food. We are seeing more and more with wine and food pairing menus at restaurants that they are using sweet wines before you get to dessert. They are really fun to pair with salty and spicy foods. Like for me, salty food with a sweet wine is just like, mm, it's like dipping a French fry in a milkshake, right? Like that salty sweet combo is just perfect. And then spicy foods too, it helps calm the spice in it. So if you're like me and spice is a little hard to handle, it's a good little combo. Or even funky cheeses. Like, one of the best pairings is like a good funky blue cheese with port. Just— if you haven't tried it and you like both those things, give it a try. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. If you did, I'd so love it if you take a quick second, just rate it, leave a review. You can go on Apple Podcasts to leave a review, and I believe on Spotify you can rate it and you can leave a comment. So please do that. Tell me what you think. And if you know a wine lover, especially a sweet wine lover in your life that would enjoy this episode, please share with them. And if you'd like to show additional support for the show, you can become a paid subscriber. Click the link in the show notes and become a monthly supporter for $10 or less a month. You'll get a shout out in the next episode I record. Plus, if you choose $10 a month, you'll get to choose a topic for a future episode. Now, in next week's episode, we have another installment of the Mythbusters miniseries, and we're talking about why you most definitely do not need a wine glass for every different type of wine that you drink. Thanks again for listening. If you want to learn more about wine, come follow me at Cork and Fizz on Instagram. Cheers!