Salut/Hi RobertsonChai,

le/on 19 Oct 2003 02:06:26 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

>>Oh, please. Like you can have any of your tastebuds functional after
>>the extreme sugar hit of an icewine.

I've dealt with this elsewhere.

>I think that's why icewein, and other very sweet, late-harvest wines, and 6
>puttonyos Tokaji, are called dessert wines, and served up in small quantities.

To some extent I agree with you. You're abolutely right that these wines,
being SO concentrated, don't need to be drunk in large quantities. As to
whether they're dessert wines... I can only say that having had a meal of
10 courses, where every course was served with a highly concentratred
botrytised wine, they are more versatile than that. However, I will freely
admit that the meal was more of a tour de force than something I'd want to
experience every day. AND that after about 6 courses, many of us had had
our appetites well and truly suppressed!

>They are an appetite-suppressing, palate demolishing, after-dinner ritual.

I can't agree with the "palate demolishing", though I have to agree that I
can't taste anything LIKE as many of them as I can dry wines.

>To each his/her own tastes, but I find that a truly great dessert wine can be
>almost a religious experience.

I'd not have thought of that analogy, but I would most certainly agree that
(for me) the pleasure to be derived from a top sweet wine is without equal
in the domaine of food and wine.

Thanks for your kind remarks elsewhere. I've always been around, perhaps
you've not gone back far enough the times when you've read afw. My B&B
isn't really in the Périgord, which is about 40 miles to the west of us,
but it is near the river Dordogne.
--
All the Best
Ian Hoare

Sometimes oi just sits and thinks
Sometimes oi just sits.