Dessert wine Questions

[SmokeEater]

I am new to wines, and just attended my first wine festival over the weekend. My girlfriend bought a bottle of "Lorely Late Harvest Viognier 2003" (from the King Family Vineyards in Va) for me, and I would like to know how to best store, serve and pair foods with this wine. Any help would be appreciated!

[winoweenie]

Hi SE and welcome to the board. Store the bottle in the coolest, darkest, most vibration-free area of your home. <Most stickies age well but also drink well young. I personally love lightly braised pate with dessert wines. Others will probably give you alternatives. WW

[Innkeeper]

Recommend pears sauteed in butter with maple syrup.

[chittychattykathy]

After you've consumed what you can the first night try pouring a little of it over a bowl of freshly sliced Peaches and small Biscotti.

[SmokeEater]

I actually consumed said bottle with the 'rents after a good dinner with some strawberry shortcake. Good stuff! The sweetness of the berries paired well, and gave the wine a kinda spicy finish. Very good. Can anyone recommend any good dessert wines that I may find locally (here in No Va)?

[lipwig]

See if you can get your hands on some of the dessert wines from the Niagra region of Canada. This area is putting out some fantastic ones. Inniskillin has some entry level ice wines and some very nice special occasion ones too. Jackson Triggs also has one which I can't recall off the top of my head that won't set you back too much. Selaks (from NZ) has one that should be available anywhere which is so-so but inexpensive ($13 here for a 375ml). If you're really ambitious, look for a Tokaji from Hungary. I used to get one from a friend from Budapest, but now they are becoming available here in the states. I believe these are some of the best in the world. (They use Botrytis as opposed to freezing the grapes). You should also be able to find quite a few late harvest or ice wines from Germany at your local wine shop. You could also experiment with Rieslings. I had one that was a Spatlese (later harvest) that I drank by itself, but it would have been good as a dessert wine.

Just my $0.02. Good luck and enjoy your experimenting! [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

Lipwig

[winoweenie]

Good advice lipwig but you omitted the king of dessert wines, Sauternes from France. Any time you're taking great sweet botrysed wines, these are the benchmarks. WW

[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 06-16-2004).]