There’s no shortage of reds in the cellar, but it never fails that at the end of a casual evening with guests, I wind up looking for an affordable dessert white. The final course is typically based on apples, apricots, berries, mangos, nectarines, peaches, pears or something creamy. A few sips per person from a 375 can top off the meal.
Bright acidity (some might say cutting/bracing) to balance the sweetness is a requirement. Baumard QdC is my current “go to” choice. Most Sauternes seem a bit too round to my palate. I’d serve Z-H SGNs frequently if my budget could take it.
There are a ton of excellent dessert wines from Ontario that fit your budget. The Ice WInes will be a tad more expensive, but there are tons of great late harvest options as well, and Ontario makes the best dessert wines in North America, IMHO.
A few. Most Rieussecs have been flabbier than my preference, but I haven’t tried the 06.
Bob, I recently tasted a very nice 2000 Tawse Ice Wine (Ontario). Penetrating intensity with bright lemon citrus and a push/pull balance of sweetness and acid. Not much made or readily available.
Matt can you describe the style of those Ordonez sherries?
You should be able to buy Baumard QdC for around $45 if you keep your eyes open. Although the initial retail asking price for QdC has inched its way up to around $60, I think they struggle to move at that price, and they tend to get cleared out eventually at around $40 to $45.
Note that I’m not making a qualitative statement (I quite like QdC), but rather I’m making a market observation.
They are readily available only if you drive to Niagara on the lake and visit the wineries. There used to be a couple of internet retailors that would ship any wine to the US for you, but because I travel there so frequently I have never had a need to use them. So, I cannot vouch for them.
They are not sherries. They are natural sweet wines (not fortified wines) from Málaga, made with Moscatel grapes. The ABV is around 12%.
The wines are not cloying and have nice acidity. Floral aromas and flavors of peaches, apricots, honeydew and tropical fruits. They used to be made by Alois Kracher and they had a similar style to his sweet wines from Austria. Great QPR’s.
I also crave some pronounced acidity to cleanse the sweetness of sweet white wines. So I second the Tokaji suggestion, and good examples are well within your price range.
From the website http://www.tokaji.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;:
Tokaji Aszú
Tokaj Aszú is the typical noble sweet wine from Tokaj-Hegyalja. The basis of this wine are hand-selected, over-ripe
botrytis-affected berries. After careful selection, these berries are processed to an Aszú paste. The taste and quality
of an Aszú wine chiefly depends on the number of baskets (puttonyos) filled with over-ripe berries (each basket
weighs 25 kilograms), which are added to a cask (these are called Gönci, and have a capacity of 136 liters) of dry
base wine. The proportion of aszú berries and dry base wine is about 1:1 for a 6 puttonyos Aszú. A 3 puttonyos Aszú
must contain at least 60 grams of residual sugar; 90 grams are required for 4 puttonyos, 129 grams for 5 puttonyos
and 150 grams for 6 puttonyos. After several months of fermentation, the Aszú normally matures for 3 to 8 years -
traditionally through oxidative ageing with deliberate air contact. A bracing and long lasting acidity characterizes this
dessert wine, which is one of the slowest maturating wines made anywhere.
You have the right idea here. You just need to go to QdC’s less presitigious neighbor Coteaux du Layon for more affordable beauties. Baumard’s top end CdL, Clos de Sainte Catherine, is a fantastic wine with sharp acids that shouldn’t cost more than $25 for a half bottle. His entry level CdL, Carte d’Or, should only run you about $12 or so. It is also a serious wine but not as complex or as bright as the Ste. Catherine. I suspect that in most vintages you would find it more then acceptable for your needs.
If you are really feeling cheap Domaine Cady makes very good CdL wines that sell at absurdly cheap prices. I bought a bunch of half bottles with a fair amount of bottle age for the whopping price of $3.00 a couple of years ago. The low prices reflect a lack of demand not quality. You would not be embarrassed to serve these wines to anyone.
Gracias Jose, I love Kracher’s stuff so these are definitely on my list.
My experience with Tokay is somewhat mixed. Some have been a bit too syrupy and some a bit thin. They can definitely hit the sweet (and sour) spot with great intensity but specific recc’s for that bullseye seem harder to come by than with other stickies.
Scott, I’m a fan of the Paon and Ste Catherine Baumard CdLayon bottlings, moreso in certain vintages.
Nothing Italian?
FWIW, an Elderton LH Semillon is probably the only Aussie sticky I’ve tried with just enough acid. Most new world dessert whites seem pretty round.
Chambers and Buellers Taky and Muscat are excellent, fall within your price range (are actually even cheaper) and are readily available in the PLCB. I think Otto hit upon it!
I tried the 07 Elderton Semillon and thought it was horrible, borderline undrinkable. It smelled like rotting fruit. Maybe there was something in my bottle…
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