DWACON wrote:

> Went to the store to stock up on some wines and saw this tiny bottle of
> white wine that went for $90 (but was on sale for $79.99). It was called
> Dolce and labeled as "Late Harvest Wine," a descriptor that I was not
> familiar with.
>
> Curiousity got the best of me and I purchased a bottle. Pleasant... but
> incredibly sweet -- almost TOO sweet. Now, I generally prefer dry wines --
> my older brother is the sweet wine drinker (and plunks every bottle I bring
> to his house in a tub of ice... to my horror!) Still, I think this might be
> a new favorite.
>
> Are there any recipes or desserts that would make use of these sweet wines,
> or should they simply be consumed from a glass by the fireplace?

Late harvest wines can be a real treat as a dessert wine. Then there is ice
wine, which more of a dessert than a dessert wine. Personally, I am impressed
with the incredible depth of flavours in good ice wines but I just find them to
be too sweet. Ice wines have become a speciality in the Niagara region where
there are lots of great grapes and growers can count on a solid freeze before
the birds get all the grapes. In order to be a true ice wine they have to be
harvested in the cold and pressed while still frozen.

I never buy ice wine. I usually go out to local wineries to taste wine and stock
up. After I have amasses a case or two of bottles to take home I buy a sample if
ice wine. The small samples are about as much as I can handle of that stuff.