Berger: The ins and outs of dessert wines

It is a smash hit in every tasting room of every winery that makes it. It always scores well in wine competitions. Sommeliers at the top restaurants adore it, and no one who has ever tasted it ever has a bad word to say about it.

So why is it so disparaged in retail stores?

I’m speaking of dessert wines, which are all the rage in tasting rooms and high-end restaurants, but a dud in stores.

For a category that includes such exalted wines as German Trockenbeerenauslese, Portuguese vintage port, French Sauternes, and Hungarian Tokaji Aszu, it’s hard to imagine that in the United States this is really a specialty drink that appeals largely to buyers who love the esoteric nature of the category - and how they work at the end of a meal.

The main reason for the success of dessert wines in winery tasting rooms is that they offer a respite from the dry, tart wine that many newcomers to such venues experience.

Imagine the scene: people step up to a tasting bar and try a chardonnay, a sauvignon blanc, and a pinot gris and finish up with a merlot, a cabernet sauvignon, and a petite sirah, getting progressively drier wines as they go. The last few wines are so dry that most people end up grabbing the water glass.

Then the tasting bar server pours an ounce of a dessert wine. Eyes go wide, oohs and ahhs are heard, and a few bottles actually are sold.

Tasting these elixirs is the secret. In retail shops these wines, mostly packaged in half bottles and costing as much as most full bottles, cannot be sampled. And thus there’s little excitement.

The best of these wines are usually made in small amounts. That’s because they usually call for special vineyard conditions, and cannot be made in much volume. Some can be made only now and then. And some actually sell for less than they cost to make.

One of my favorites is late-harvest Riesling, made from Germany’s homeland grape. Among the best American versions I have tasted is the annual one from Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley. It’s best to get it online; there is no retail availability.

Great dessert wines also are made from dozens of other grape varieties. Among these are (with examples in parentheses):

gewurztraminer (Husch), sauvignon blanc (Giesen of New Zealand), muscat canelli (Jeff Runquist), Vignoles (St. James of Missouri and Hunt Country of New York), and even red wines (such as the late-harvest zinfandel of Carol Shelton).

Even the under-rated Vidal grape, a French-American hybrid, makes a fine dessert wine, such as from Grey Ghost of Virginia and Knapp of New York.

Port-style dessert wines also are very popular in restaurants as after-dinner beverages that can be poured with chocolate-based desserts, such as the Grahams “Six Grapes” Reserve Porto. Vintage Port remains the fine wine collectors’ prize in dessert wines. The best of them are not ready to drink for 30 years or more.

Still, as luscious as they are, it’s hard not to pull the cork and enjoy them young. They may not deliver all that a connoisseur would want, but they are spectacular when paired with great cheeses.

Wine of the Week: Non-vintage Quady Elysium, Black Muscat Dessert Wine, California ($22) – There is probably no better example of the Black Muscat grape than this dessert-styled wine that has a brilliant aroma of roses, blackberries, Maraschino cherries, and violets, with a great acid level to allow the wine to work with fruit-based desserts. Not as sweet as many dessert wines.

Sonoma County resident Dan Berger publishes “Vintage Experiences,” a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com