How to Chill Dessert Wine
Dessert wines are sweet and rich, served to complement a dessert or served alone as the dessert. The sweetness is created by harvesting grapes slightly past the peak of ripeness, allowing residual sugars to fully develop. Certain dessert wines, such as sherry, port and madeira, are fortified with the addition of brandy or other spirits to raise the alcohol content. While all dessert wines should be chilled, red wines are served at slightly warmer temperatures than white wines, and sparkling dessert wines should be served colder. The storage temperature of dessert wines determines how long they should be chilled before serving. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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1
Rinse out a clean ice bucket with cold water.
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Add one full ice cube tray of ice to the ice bucket. The average ice cube tray contains about 2 cups of water.
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Add one-half the amount of cold water to the ice bucket (about 1 cup) and stir with a clean spoon.
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Set the wine bottle into the ice bucket. Add more ice cubes and water, if necessary, until the bucket is about two-thirds full.
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Allow the wine to chill to the proper temperature before serving. Dessert wines stored at room temperature can take from 10 to 30 minutes to chill. A wine chart should be consulted for the proper chilling times.
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Tips & Warnings
Lighter, sparkling wines go well with fresh fruits.
To avoid a sour aftertaste in the wine, serve a dessert wine that is sweeter than the dessert.
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