Dessert

Defining structure

Residual sugar 50–250+ g/L; concentrated by late harvest, noble rot, or freezing. ABV variable.

History

Concentrated sweet wine predates the modern era by millennia — ancient Greek and Roman writers describe drying grapes on roofs to make passito-style sweet wines. Tokaji Aszú from Hungary is documented from the mid-17th century, the first wine to systematically use Botrytis cinerea (noble rot). Sauternes followed in the 19th century, and Germany's Trockenbeerenauslese emerged from late-harvest accidents and intentional selection. Eiswein/ice wine was first formally produced in Franconia in 1794. Canada's Inniskillin and similar Niagara producers built ice wine into a global luxury category in the 1990s. The modern dessert category includes late-harvest, botrytized, ice-pressed, and dried-grape (vin santo, recioto) variants — all concentrated by some method, all priced for occasion.

Food pairings

• pastry
• foie gras
• stilton

Serving notes

Serve well chilled, 40–45°F. Small pours.