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Sweet wines are rarely enjoyed by wine lovers, and when they are, it is usually at the end of a sumptuous meal; when it is a question of standing up to the cheese or giving the "bleu" (blue cheese) an ideal wine accompaniment. They are world-famous and highly praised, the sweet ones: noble sweet Rieslings, ice wines, Sauternes, Monbazillac, Vin Santo, Recioto, Tokaj... all the way to port wines and sherries. Dessert wines, so to speak, a dessert. Unless - and this is no longer an insider tip - you are looking for the ideal wine to accompany foie gras, foie gras. But who still wants to afford this delicacy today? Moral and financial reasons speak against it. And the widespread opinion that a sweet dessert also needs a sweet wine has long been debunked as a useful legend.
After all the tasted old Bordeaux and the good food - now another sweet wine? (Photo: P. Züllig)

Wine lovers claim, with some justification, that sweet wines - especially noble sweet ones - create an "explosion of aromas" in the mouth. But who wants to risk another explosion on the palate after an enjoyable meal - with the most diverse aroma experiences? The same applies to wine tastings: I, too, have made the mistake. After an extensive meal with wine friends and many fine wines, I took something very special out of the cellar: a small bottle of Yquem 1987, and of course subjected it to a blind tasting. Of course, I expected - from wine connoisseurs - a torrent of ahhs, ohhs and oohs. Nothing of the sort happened, but statements such as: "Quite nice! - "A nice dessert wine!" - "We've drunk better Sauternes!" This may all be true, but with the label revealed - I am convinced of this - the comments would have been quite different. A heated discussion about ice wines and Sauternes ensued. It culminated in a bet that in a tasting of German ice wines and French botrytis wines (Sauternes, Barsac) the Germans (opinion of my wine friends) or the French (my assertion) would clearly prevail.

Monbazillac% Centre of sweet wines in the Périgord. As a dessert wine, its rather light wines are much more suitable than the far more famous Sauternes. (Photo: P. Züllig)

The bet is still on. Nobody has wanted to take on the noble-sweet contest so far, or we haven't found a "neutral" referee who is accepted by both sides. Meanwhile, I suspect the contest would never have broken out if I hadn't served the Yquem at the end of the long evening, but at the beginning, simply as an aperitif, as a "small, cheering surprise - ingenious", as the Swiss wine newspaper once wrote. I have enjoyed this kind of sweet aperitif many times in France, really "ingenious"! In fact, it is a good idea not to wait until all appetite is satisfied and the stomach is (over)full before adding the usually creamy, opulent, concentrated sweet wine. No wonder the head is buzzing or the stomach is rebelling the next day. Of course, Port, Sauternes or even Santos (with 16 percent alcohol by volume) are then blamed.

The most famous sweet wine region south of Bordeaux: Sauternes and Barsac. (Photo: P. Züllig)

The seemingly ideal combination of dessert and sweet wines - the almost indispensable finale to a good, sumptuous meal - turns out to be a boomerang. The dessert wine degenerates into a stomach filler and not very enjoyable supplement. It is therefore not surprising that sweet wines often have a dubious reputation among connoisseurs. A sweet wine is not necessarily a dessert wine just because the dessert is sweet and a meal - according to the usual pattern - has to end with it. Sweet wine simply has more residual sugar (EU standard: more than 40 grams) and can - or should - be enjoyed whenever one has a craving for "sweetness", and this rarely corresponds with meal plans and times. On the contrary, "snacking" is something that many deny themselves and yet love so much from childhood. Why can't a dessert wine be just as much a sweet tooth? This would also relieve us of a very common, tricky task of finding the "right wine" to go with a sweet dessert. Sweet to sweet may sound very nice, but whether it really fits? I mean, more as a pun than as a flavour experience. For example, with cream - probably the most common type of dessert - a creamy sweet wine almost seems like a persiflage. I would prefer a strong, dry white or a mature (dry) red. Or let's take the range of desserts from grandmother's kitchen Latin: pudding, egg dishes etc.. Accompanied by a barrique wine - preferably red - is far better than any sweet wine accompaniment. Actually, when I think about it, there are very few sweet desserts with which so-called dessert wines harmonise. Harmony does not simply mean keeping in step, but rather, and far more often, complementing, perfecting; adding what is missing - in this case, for example, acidity, further aromas, bitter substances, other consistencies, but certainly not a lot of sugar on top of a lot of sugar.

Barrel storage at Château d'Yquem. This is where the best wines matured for four years. (Photo: P. Züllig)

But now I have ventured far into the realm of taste sensations. Only a recognised intellectual authority can save me from this entanglement. And I have found her - thank God: It lived in the 18th century and its name is (every pupil has encountered it in German lessons) Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. In the Hamburg Dramaturgy he wrote: "It is granted to everyone to have his own taste, and it is praiseworthy to seek to give an account of one's own taste. But to give the reasons by which one wants to justify it a generality which, if it were right, would have to make it the only true taste, is to go beyond the limits of the inquiring lover and to raise oneself up to a stubborn legislator."

Sincerely
Yours sincerely

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