How To Enjoy The Best Sweet Wines During The Festive Season

From Sauternes to Riesling, here’s how to enjoy the best sweet wines during the festive season.

- Richard Hemming

Despite being some of the most delicious and undervalued drinks imaginable, sweet wines remain a very occasional drink. They are usually reserved for special occasions and indulgent dinners, and no self-respecting feast should be complete without a glass of “sticky” to top it all off.

With the festive season upon us, whether you are planning a quiet Christmas lunch for two or a Chinese New Year banquet for the whole family, here’s your ultimate guide to enjoying the best sweet wines.

THREE SWEET PIECES

In the royal family of sweet wines, there are three main pretenders to the throne: Sauternes from Bordeaux, Tokaji from Hungary and Riesling from Germany.

Sauternes is perhaps the best known of these three. This vineyard region, south of the city of Bordeaux, enjoys the ideal microclimate to encourage the spread of noble rot, a benign form of fungus that grows on grapes, shrivelling and concentrating the berries without spoiling them.

Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon are two Bordeaux varieties well-disposed to this phenomenon, and they are blended together to form a mesmerising tapestry of flavour: marmalade, ginger, honey, five spice and jasmine.