Hmmm, you’re not too sure about dessert wines according to our latest poll . . .

The outcome of our recent poll showed many of you either aren’t too confident about serving dessert wines or, possibly, feel they’re one drink too many at the end of a long meal. Over half of you (55%) said they served a sweet wine “only occasionally” while a more enthusiastic one in five of you (19%) said you served them “regularly but not every time I entertain”. More surprising, perhaps, was the significant number who either said they served them “whenever I have a dinner party” or “never” served them - 14% in each case or roughly 1 in 7.


For the doubters, here are a few thoughts that might make you think about sweet wines in a more favourable light:

• sweet wines are as special as champagne. They are usually harvested in painstaking ways - picking several times in the same vineyard to select the grapes at exactly the right moment. They are artisanal wines with highly individual flavours, rare and special.

• they can dress up a shop-bought dessert into a special experience. If you cheat - as we all do from time to time - and buy in a dessert, serving a glass of dessert wine with it gives it a personal touch. Stick to simple fruit tarts such as apple, pear and apricot if you’re worried about the pairing. Most dessert wines will match them

• they can replace dessert altogether. If you’re short of time Just serve a glass of vin santo with some cantucci biscuits as the Italians do. Or a Tokaji with some dried fruits and nuts
  

• you don’t have to pour a large amount. We’re not talking about drinking vast quantities here any more than you would polish off a whole box of chocolates at the end of a meal. Just a small sip in a pretty antique glass. A half bottle will easily serve 4, even 6 if you’re just having a taste.

• they can be a boon with cheese. Fine reds often struggle with a cheeseboard and with blue cheeses in particular. Sweet wines sail through.

The most extraordinary sweet wine I’ve tasted recently has been Didier Dageneau and Guy Pautrat’s powerful and exotic Les Jardins de Babylone Jurancon 2004 which went miraculously well with no less than six different desserts at Pierre Gagnaire’s Lecture Room and Library at Sketch which I featured in Play Sommelier the other week.  (Not cheap, mind you, at round about £50/$100 a 50ml bottle but worth it)