Wine Treats for Your Sweetie

It’s the month of love! And just as love comes in all shapes and types, we should honor it however we like – no cheesy greeting cards required. Whether you believe in true love or are celebrating something more casual this February, rest assured that there’s a perfect wine to help you enjoy an evening with someone special – or even just a great friend.

Sweet wines come in many different styles from regions around the world, and they shouldn’t be relegated to after dinner, only. Some will argue that certain sweet wines and stinky cheeses make for the best of companions at any time, and I agree. As always, there’s a world of wine out there just waiting to be experienced.

You may be familiar with fortified wines, which are excellent end-of-the-evening celebratory libations, especially for those who shy away from big desserts. Sometimes, all you need to top off the night after a great meal is a sip of so

mething sweet but complex to get you in the right mood.

One of the most popular after-dinner delights is a comforting glass of port, which is usually available on dessert menus and is always a great finish to a romantic meal.

The port industry is located in the Douro Valley of Portugal and is famously tied to the coastal city of Porto. Although, the vineyard area where grapes are grown for these wines is located upstream along the Douro River. You may see port-style wines made in other areas of the world, but just as with other wine specialties, true port is only from this very unique region.

Port is made by adding grape spirit, called aguardente, to the must partway into the fermentation process in order to kill the yeast with alcohol and stop fermentation, leaving sugars behind to make a sweet wine with about 19%-22% ABV (alcohol by volume). P

orts are usually red – although white and even rosé port exists – and come in a range of styles from basic ruby and tawny to more complex reserve ports, late bottled vintage (LBV), tawny with age, vintage ports and single quinta (wine from a single estate, or quinta) vintage ports.

Ruby ports are the least complex in the range and have a deep reddish color and sweet flavors of red fruits. Basic ruby ports are aged less than three years, whereas reserve category ports will have longer aging requirements, which create more aromas and flavors.

Tawny ports are quite popular. They have a brownish color due to their oxidative maturation, which gives them nuttier, more concentrated and intricate flavors the longer they are aged. You may also notice a year indication on certain bottles, such as 10, 20, 30 or 40 years. This stated number is an average age of the wines in this particular blend.

Vintage ports are usually the flagship wines of a producer, and they are rarer than other styles. These special bottlings are a blend of only the finest wines from the best vineyards in an exceptional growing year and must be legally declared by the producer. Vintage ports are not released every year and are made to mature for some time.

It's easy to find port from The Fladgate Partnership on shelves around South Florida. This includes brands such as the iconic Taylor Fladgate, as well as Croft and Fonseca. Keep a look out, as Taylor Fladgate annually announces a limited release of a single-harvest port made 50 years ago. In 2021, the 1971 Single Harvest was released and is available at fine wine retailers.

If you’d prefer a fortified wine from Spain, consider a sweet Pedro Ximénez (PX), muscat, pale cream, medium or cream sherry. Yes, sherry can be bone dry, but these sweet styles will surely complement any special occasion.

Sherry is from the Jerez region of southern Spain and is made in a different fortification process than port that includes a complicated solera system and either biological (with flor – film of yeast on the surface of wine – or yeast) or oxidative (without yeast) aging. The type of aging will determine the color and flavors found in that particular wine. Naturally sweet styles of sherry (PX, muscat) have undergone oxidative aging, while others are sweetened later (pale cream, medium, cream) and can undergo both types of aging.

Pale cream sherry can be economical and quite delicious. These wines are straw yellow and experience a short biological aging before they are sweetened and ready to drink. Medium sherry shows characteristics from both oxidative (toffee, nutty) and biological (bready) aging, whereas cream sherry is nuttier due to oxidative aging.

Harveys Bristol Cream is an example of a cream sherry that can be purchased for about $15. Harveys is a blend of three dry styles of sherry – Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso – and the sweet Pedro Ximénez. The different styles have been aged separately for an average of three to 20 years. On the palate, this sherry is creamy with flavors of candied orange, caramel, raisins and toffee. Harveys is a great bottle to serve well chilled with dessert, or simply share as a sweet treat on its own.