Dessert wine red and white, sweet, fortified, grape. Dessert wines: names

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Dessert wine is a drink that has a strictly defined focus. Even its name says so.

Rules of application

In life, there are often products with speaking names. This is very convenient for two reasons. First, it is always clear what is at stake. And secondly, there is a guarantee against the possibility of making a mistake in choosing. In fact, dessert wine is not confirmed by any international classification. Such a concept exists only in Russia. Based on the name itself, it is customary to use it as a dessert or after any dish that is such. Some people mistakenly believe that the prefix "dessert" involves serving this product along with some kind of dessert (fruits, sweets, and so on). Everything is quite the opposite. It must be clearly remembered that dessert wine should never be served with any other dish. This is completely unacceptable. It in itself is a separate dish that does not tolerate any additives. Before using it, you must:

1) Cool first, preferably to 10-15 degrees.

2) Then pour into a special decanter.

3) Andonly after that, serve to the table complete with a set of small (“madera”) glasses.

Drinking such wine is accepted in small quantities (no more than 150 milliliters), slowly, enjoying every sip.

Product feature

In terms of composition, dessert wine is a product with certain characteristics. It includes any natural or fortified wine that contains:

• sugar - from 2 to 35 percent;
• alcohol - from 12 to 17 percent.

At one time, the following wines of this category were produced in the former USSR.

Conditional classification of dessert wines in the USSR:

n/n	Product name	Sugar content in grams per 100 cu. cm (%)	Alcohol content, volume percent (% vol.)
1	Semi-sweet	5 to 12	from 14 to 16
2	Sweet	from 14 to 20	from 15 to 17
3	Liquor	21 to 35	12 to 17

Special grape varieties are usually used for these wines. And it is harvested only when the berry reaches its maximum ripeness. At this time, the amount of sugar is extremely high, which is especially important for getting a really tasty drink. In addition, winemakers to improve the flavoruse various methods of pre-treatment of raw materials (pulp). It is usually warmed up, insisted or lightly fermented. All this allows you to make a more harmonious combination of taste, color and aroma of good wine.

Red wines

Depending on the type of grapes used, dessert wines are divided into white and red. Each of them is unique in its own way. Red dessert wine is usually made from dark grape varieties. These include: Saperavi, Isabella, Cabernet and black Muscat. The finished drink has a rich red color and a pleasant characteristic aroma. This wine is slightly thick and rather sweet in taste. Here the technology of its preparation plays an important role. Ripe grapes (sometimes even slightly rotten) are harvested at the beginning of winter. After the first frost, the water inside the berries turns into ice and the juice remains as the only liquid fraction. Then the raw material is crushed. The resulting wort (extracted juice) is fermented and insisted on the pulp (berry peel) for three to four days. Sometimes, in order to achieve the best taste and color, short-term heating of the pulp to 75 degrees is used. Then it is cooled again and passed through a press, and the must is left to ferment for 20-30 days. After that, it remains only to add alcohol and you can pour the product into barrels. In them, the wine is aged for at least three years, after which it is bottled and sent for storage, and then for sale. Cahors is one of the most famous dessert red wines. It is better known as a church drink and is producedat the best factories in Crimea, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Armenia.

White liquid dessert

By analogy, dessert white wine is made from light grape varieties. The rest of the process technology remains the same. Passing through all the intermediate stages, the raw material gradually turns into a fragrant drink of amber-golden color. The specific taste and aroma of the drink are due to certain grape varieties (Tokay, Muscat). Many of these wines are produced by pre-blending. By mixing completely different wine materials, it becomes possible to obtain a unique taste, desired tone and unique bouquet. This is what distinguishes wines of this category from ordinary table or dry wines. In the CIS, one of the largest enterprises for the production of such products is the Massandra association. White wine is produced there: Kokur, Pinot Gris, Muscat, Old Nectar, Tokay and others. They are distinguished by a soft harmonious taste, a characteristic aroma and a delicate, pronounced aftertaste. The wines are aged in oak barrels for at least two years. This time is enough to achieve the desired characteristics.

Talking names

Dessert wines have been very popular all over the world lately. The names, as a rule, indicate the type of raw material or the area where this or that product is produced. For example, "Muscat" says that a special grape variety called White Muscat was used to make the drink. Guilt"Bastardo", "Kokur" and "Pedro" have the same history. But the wine "Golden Field" is called the state farm, on the territory of which there are vineyards, where, among others, the famous Alicante variety grows. It is he who is used as a raw material for this wonderful drink with a pleasant velvety aroma and a slight hint of chocolate on the palate. In contrast, Tokaj is not only a grape variety, but also a city in Hungary, as well as a region where white wines are produced.

In addition, the name can be the type of drink. For example, fortified dessert wine products include sherry, port, marsala and Madeira. Hence the names of many wines: Crimean Sherry, White Port, Madera Massandra. When buying such a product in a store, it immediately becomes clear what kind of product it is.

Golden mean

Among the rich selection, sweet dessert wines occupy a special place. It is they who, in the approved classification, occupy an intermediate place between liqueur and semi-sweet wines of dessert quality. This is a fairly energy-intensive product, 100 grams of which contains about 160.2 kilocalories. It contains practically no fats (0%), and proteins (0.2%) and vitamins in such a small amount that it can even be ignored. At the same time, it contains many macro- and microelements, as well as B vitamins. Together with the absence of cholesterol and low sodium content, all this can be attributed to the positive properties of the product. But there are also negative qualities, such asalcohol and high blood sugar. All this indicates the restriction of the use of this product. Many categories of people (diabetics and various gastric disorders) should use it with caution and rarely introduce it into their diet. Some scientists also believe that wine in general can contribute to the development of cancer in the human body.

Interesting details

Alcohol is a product that produces not only vodka, whiskey, cognac, but also various kinds of liqueurs and liqueurs. It is also one of the components used by winemakers around the world to make fortified dessert wines. This is a fairly popular product. As you know, all fortified wines are divided into strong and dessert drinks. Therefore, any dessert (semi-sweet, sweet or liqueur) wine, in fact, is fortified. This is confirmed by the production technology and the mandatory presence of alcohol in the composition. In Russia, such wines began to be made only by the end of the nineteenth century. Their appearance on the market has become a real revolution in the history of domestic winemaking. What gives the product alcohol? It turns out that its introduction at the stage of wort fermentation can stop the process. As a result, some sugar remains unfermented. Specialists have learned to control this phenomenon and obtain wines with a predetermined sugar and alcohol content in the finished product.

DIY

It turns outthat you can make dessert grape wine yourself. This will require grapes, sugar, as well as a little time and patience. The technology of the process is quite simple:

1. Clusters of grapes sort out and separate the berries from the branches.
2. Place the product in a wide bowl, knead it thoroughly and leave it in this state at normal room temperature for 4 days.
3. Squeeze out the fermented product.
4. Add ordinary water to the resulting juice (ratio 2:1).
5. Pour sugar there (2.5 kilograms per 10 liters).
6. Pour the liquid into bottles and put on each of them a rubber household glove. At first, she is very inflated. The product is considered ready when the glove itself falls off. Now the wine can be filtered and tasted. If there is not enough sugar, then you need to do the following:

1) Pour part of the finished product into a separate bowl.

2) Warm it up a little and add sugar.

3) Stir until completely dissolved.

4) Add the resulting composition to the original mixture.

Now the prepared wine only needs to be poured into clean bottles, tightly closed and left for another 1 month. The finished product will certainly pleasantly surprise the home winemaker.