SUGAR, SPICE, AND EVERYTHING NICE - THURSTQUEEN SHARES HOW TO USE HIGHER SUGAR LEVELS IN WINE AND LEVEL UP YOUR DRINKING GAME

Sweet wines get a bad rap, don’t they?

There’s a common misconception that these wines are  “unsophisticated,” and for “ammateur drinkers.”  It’s almost as if folks associate fancy European wines with dryness and being expensive – yet this couldn’t be further from the truth.  Some of the best – and most expensive – wines in the world happen to be sweet wines.  Seriously, just look up a bottle of Château d’Yquem Sauternes if you really want to burn a hole in your wallet.  The truth is understanding sweet wines and how to pair them with food can be a life-changing experience, it’s just all about knowing how and what to pair these wines with.

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a wine “sweet,” it’s important to consider how wine is made.  Wine is made in a process called “fermentation.”  This is when yeasts convert grape juice to alcohol.  The yeast gorges itself on the sugars then excretes alcohol and Carbon Dioxide gas (CO2) until it eventually dies.  Whatever sugar is left over is the stuff the yeast wasn’t able to eat before the fermentation process ended.  This leftover sugar is called Residual Sugar or RS.  The level of RS in a wine is directly proportional with how sweet it actually is going to be. 

A way you can start introducing sweet wines into your wine rotation and level up your game is to learn how to pair them.  If you are a spicy food enthusiast, sweet wines will be your new best friend.  Sweet wines and spicy food are considered the holy grail of food and wine pairings, as all that residual sugar is nice and gentle on your taste buds after taking a bite out of something with a peppery kick!

This is an example of a contrasting pairing, as the sweetness helps dial down some of that heat so you can experience (and enjoy) other flavors that you might not notice otherwise.  Sweet wines also pair great with salty foods – who doesn’t love a good sweet and salty snack like chocolate covered pretzels – fatty foods, and some sour foods.  Basically, when pairing sweet wines – think about flavors that contrast.  If you’re looking for some real world examples of sweet wines and their pairings, we’ve put a couple together for you to try featuring some wines from Total Wine below!

Doctor Loosen “Dr. L” Riesling & Korean BBQ –

Doctor Loosen is one of those classic producers from Germany’s Mosel River Valley.  Their Dr. L Riesling is a silvery, racy wine with just a slight kiss of residual sugar.  There are plenty of tropical citrus qualities to this wine, which play super nicely with the umami flavors in Korean BBQ.  Riesling has a good amount of acidity, and the good Dr’s wine is no exception!  That acid will cut beautifully through the fattier textures of Korean BBQ and all that glossy sauce.

Bougrier “V” Vouvray & Chili With Cornbread –

Vouvray is a white wine grown from Chenin Blanc grapes in France’s Loire Valley.  It comes in many different styles, ranging from sweet, to dry, to even sparkling.  The Bougrier “V” Vouvray is a lighter white wine that has a honeyed bit of sweetness, with some beautiful floral qualities. This wine has a really nice round texture, making it the perfect sort of wine to stand up to the many different components of the Chili.  That subtle sweetness will interplay nicely with the spicy kick of this dish.  

Ulrich Langguth Sekt & Spicy Wings

Sekt is a sparkling wine made in Germany and Austria, and is often made in the same style as prosecco, where the wine ferments in a tank.  It comes in a variety of different styles, and a lot of Sekt can be on the sweeter side. The Ulrich Langguth Sekt is like a sprightly, grown up version of 7-up, with racy lime flavors and plenty of zing.  There’s just a slight sweetness, making it the perfect bubbly wine to cut through the crispy fried goodness of the wings.  That extra heat will intermingle beautifully with the sweeter flavors of this ultra light Riesling-based Sekt.

So twirl on the sweet wine haters, Thurstqueen. They don’t know what’s up.

The reality is, sweet wines just hit different, and are arguably as food friendly as drier, heavily tannic wines.

At the end of the day, it’s important to drink what YOU like Thurstqueen, and not listen to the naysayers. In fact, I’m pretty sure after giving some of these pairings a go, you’ll come around to sweet wines, and maybe convert people over to the sweet side.
So what do you think about sweet wines?