Sweet moments to savour

Christmas is one of the few occasions when the wine-drinking population at large goes near a bottle of fortified or sweet wine. For the rest of the year, we studiously ignore the dessert wine section in our shops. We are missing out, as a glass of something toothsome and sweet is a great way to finish off a meal. A bottle, once opened, will keep for a week. However now is the time when we all indulge in something sweet and luscious.

A Port or liqueur Muscat from Australia will match the Christmas pudding for both power and sweetness. However by this stage of the proceedings many stomachs are groaning, and the last thing they need is a rich wine with a hefty 20 per cent alcohol. If you do pour one, make sure it is a small serving.

The lighter alternative is a sweet Moscato d’Asti from Piedmont in Italy. These delicious palate-cleansing elderflower-scented wines have a mere 5 per cent alcohol and are wonderfully refreshing at this stage of the meal. O’Briens has the Moscato Ascheri for €14.49 and Wines Direct the delicious Bera Moscato d’Asti for €17.20.

Many families now go for a lighter fruit salad, fruit tart or something similar instead of a heavy pudding. A Moscato would do equally well here, but you should also consider a dessert wine. Virtually every country produces one. My favourite regions would include the Loire Valley, Germany and Austria. However Sauternes is one of the great classics and this year I came across two wines from two importers, each sharing the same intriguing story.

Château d’Yquem is recognised as one of the greatest wines in the world. The property, located in Sauternes, produces tiny quantities of one of the most sought-after dessert wines. Known for its intense, complex, luscious fruit balanced by a relatively high acidity, it has a reputation for amazing longevity, with bottles living for up to a century if properly stored.

I have been fortunate to taste Yquem on a few occasions and found it a very impressive wine, even if the earth didn’t quite move. The château also releases a dry white wine with the shortest name in wine history – the letter Y, pronounced as Ygrec, the French for Y. If you are making the world’s finest dessert wine, obviously you will need to discard any wine that is less than perfect. What happens with the leftovers? Famously Yquem, unlike many other Bordeaux properties, never produces a “second wine” with its inferior produce.

Over the past month or two, two importers approached me, each promising a very special dessert wine, each labelled simply Sauternes – usually an inferior wine, best avoided. The back label on one promised that it came from “one of the most famous of all Sauternes vineyards” and left little doubt that this was none other than wine considered not quite good enough for Château d’Yquem.

The other importer recounted a similar story, although the label gave nothing away. Strangely they were both from the same vintage yet had a different alcohol level. They both tasted good but again very different. So if you cannot afford a bottle of the Grand Vin which sells for more than €400, it might be worth trying out one or both of these.

I tend to avoid fortified wines with my Christmas dinner but I always open a bottle (or two) of fortified wine for those fireside moments when a small glass of something warming is called for. Served with a few nuts, a little cheese, or maybe a few chocolates, there are few finer treats. This year, I have a half bottle of the wonderful Apostoles Palo Cortado from Gonzalez Byass. I will also look to O’Briens for their range excellent range of Madeira, Mitchell & Son for their Lustau sherries, and other goodies besides.

However, Wines on the Green on Dawson Street now has the most impressive range of fortified wines in the country, including the amazing must-try sherries from Equipo Navazos. These are amongst the greatest sherries I have ever tasted. The same wines are also stocked by Black Pig in Donnybrook, providing a perfect excuse to stock up on all of those Spanish goodies for Christmas.

Lastly, if you are considering making mulled wine over Christmas, my colleague Eunice Power has produced a delicious spicy syrup, perfect for hassle-free mulled wine. Available exclusively from The Wine Buff.