Wine Review: Wow guests with these holiday dessert wines

The menu and the order of food served at a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner have been written in stone and are almost as religiously observed.

There is, however, one part of the feast where the host can make their individual and indelible mark on the holiday meal and probably become the part that will be the most remembered by the attendees. It’s the dessert.

One form of dessert that is rarely thought about prior to the event is dessert wines. Dessert wines are full-bodied sweet wines that have been specifically made to be served with or as dessert at the end of a meal in place of all the sweet, fattening, heavy whipped-cream desserts.

As a point of information, to end a meal with or as dessert, wine has always been associated with opulence. So much so that the former royalty of Russia so loved dessert wines that they had them delivered in gold-embossed bottles.

Dessert wines offer their fruit flavors right up front and obvious. I can add that a dessert wine presents a series of flavors and aromas that you and your guests will likely never forget.

I have picked out a few that I can recommend, if you wish to follow that ancient model and end your holiday meal as did the royalty of old.

Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley 2017 Moscato D’Oro ($25)
The first thing that is noticed when the wine is poured is that it is heavy and does not rush out of the bottle, but rather gently flows into the glass. As it enters the glass, the room becomes filled with the aromas of pineapple and honeysuckle followed by peach, candied fruit, fresh-cut lime and clementine oranges. Words cannot fully describe this wine or any other dessert wine as they must be experienced, and I believe that it will be an experience that will remain with the reader for a long time.

Merryvale Vineyards Antigua Dessert Wine ($45)
The Merryvale Vineyards Antigua Dessert Wine has been meticulously made from the muscat de Frontignan grape with selected wines that have spent time mellowing in French oak barrels, an action that imparts their own particular flavor, color and aroma to the wine. The flavor and aroma seem to work hand in hand, offering an ever-changing display of almonds, orange peel and butterscotch. I have done my best to describe the flavor and aroma of this wine but, as with all dessert wines, everyone who tastes it goes away with their own individualistic experience.

Durban 2015 Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise ($15)
This is an affordable dessert wine but not any the lesser in quality and enjoyment. The wine presents the aromas of cooked lemons, fresh guava, roasted pineapples, sweet peaches and flowers which follow through to a flavor that reprises and amplifies them. The finish is creamy and equally fruity. This wine will, without any question, make a long-lasting, happy memory of the meal.

Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante ($17)
If by chance the reader does not want to take the dessert wine route, there is another way to end the meal with a splash of elegance. That’s with the Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante, a sweet sparkling wine that exhibits all of the charm and elegance that a sparkling wine is famous for. This is a golden-colored sparkling wine that displays the aromas and flavors of peach, honey, a hint of citrus and honeysuckle. It also is not meant to be a wine to be quietly pondered over while playing chess but has been made specifically to enhance any party. The wine is crisp enough to support the fresh fruit flavors of the moscato grape while not succumbing to the effects of the carbonation and well fits the happiness and joy of holiday dining.

Wine columnist Bennet Bodenstein can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.