Sweet Wines for Valentine's Day
Which Wine Will You Choose to Celebrate Your Sweet One? By Alan Boehmer
Sweet or Dry? Ask tasting room managers how their patrons respond to the frequently asked question, "Do you prefer dry wines or sweet?" The response is almost 100%; the stated preference is always for dry. But when it comes to purchasing, off-dry whites (aka: sweet) often outpace the bright, acidic dry ones. The wine drinking public in North America is obviously confused, and understandably so. The typical table wines of a generation or two ago were notably sweet. Many even carried references to well-known sweet wines of Europe: Tokay, Port, Muscatelle, Rhine. But as wine writers began to influence consumers' preferences, we saw a shift towards drier table wines: Red Mountain, Green Hungarian, Chablis Blanc, Hearty Burgundy. These wines were never truly dry, but their advocates believed them to be so. These were followed by varietal wines: Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling. The American wine clientele was steadily moving towards drier wines. Then the traditional wines of Europe, once the province of the well-to-do, exploded onto the New World wine scene. Now we began to understand what dry really meant. We became acquainted with bone dry Muscadet, dry white Burgundy, steely Savennieres, crisp Alsatian whites, austere white Bordeaux. And even the reds lacked that mouth-filling richness associated with New World reds. They were lean and finished dry. Sweet wines declined in popularity.
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