On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:18:57 -0400, "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.
>
>Pleased that my experimentation yielded such results, I googled to find out
>what the characteristics of late harvest wines were and what made them so
>thick and sweet. After reading the wikipedia entry, I realized I had a
>similar (albiet red) wine while visiting a friend in Germany.
>
>I was a kid at the time and my palate was not quite where it is now. All I
>remember was that it was like drinking alcoholic Aunt Jemima syrup that made
>the ground spin at varying angles.
>
>The only question that I still have -- are these type wines always so
>expensive?
>
>This was the only late harvest wine in the store and the dearth of
>knowledgeable clerks left my interrogatories unanswered. I plan on
>searching for some other varieties and will add the occasional bottle as a
>change of pace from my usual libational habits.

"Late Harvest" ("vendage tardive" jn French) wines are made from
grapes that are left on the vine beyond the normal, or regular,
harvest, hence their name. Often they are allowed to develop, or are
innoculated with, botrytis cinera, or "noble rot", a fungus that
attacks the grape skins and perforates them, allowing the water in the
berries to evaporate. What is left is a very concentrated solution,
perhaps 35 brix or above, and this is what the wine is made from. The
trick is to handle the fermentation in such a way that the sweetness
is balanced by the other characteristics, primarily the acidity. In
theory, a LH wine can be made with any varietal. Sauternes is made
from semillon and most German LH (although they don't use the term
there) wines are made from riesling.

As I recall, the only legal requirement for using the term in the USA
is that the sugar content (in brix) must be on the label. I am open to
correction on this point, however.

Vino