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Concept
Dessert wine
Summary
Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert.
There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines (fino and amontillado sherry) drunk before the meal and the red fortified wines (port and madeira) drunk after it. Thus, most fortified wines are regarded as distinct from dessert wines, but some of the less-strong fortified white wines, such as Pedro Ximénez sherry and Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, are regarded as honorary dessert wines. In the United States, by contrast, a dessert wine is legally defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume, which includes all fortified wines—and is taxed more highly as a result. This dates back to when the US wine industry only made dessert wines by fortification, but such a classification is outdated now that modern yeast and viticulture can produce dry wines over 15% without fortification (and German dessert wines can contain half that amount of alcohol).
Makers of dessert wines want to produce a wine containing high levels of both sugar and alcohol. Since all winemaking creates alcohol from fermentation of sugars they are typically traded off. However, there are many ways to increase relative sugar levels in the final wine:
grow grapes so that they naturally have sugar to spare for both sweetness and alcohol.
add sugar, either:
before fermentation as sugar or honey (Chaptalization)
after fermentation as unfermented must (Süssreserve).
add alcohol (typically brandy) before all the sugar is fermented (fortification or 'mutage').
remove water to concentrate the sugar:
In warm climates, by air drying the grapes to make raisin wine
In frosty climates, by freezing out some of the water to make ice wine
In damp temperate climates, by using a fungal infection, Botrytis cinerea, to desiccate the grapes with noble rot
In the absence of other techniques, makers of dessert wine have to produce their sugar in the vineyard.
Official source
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