dessert wine Archives - It Must Be Wine O'clock

A light and refreshing blend of Orange Muscat and Flora

Brown Brothers Orange Muscat & Flora (Australia)

Add together 80% Orange Muscat and 20% Flora (a crossing of Gewürztraminer and Sémillon grapes) and the result is this delightful Orange Muscat & Flora blend from Brown Brothers in Australia.

With aromas of orange blossom, honey and citrus notes on the nose, and flavours of lemon, honey and apricot on the palate, this is a light, refreshing and well-balanced wine.

A well-rounded wine with a smooth mouthfeel and a clean fresh finish, this is a great match for fruity desserts or a blue cheese.

Available from Tesco (£8.50, half bottle)

History in a glass: Commandaria, one of the world’s oldest wines

Keo St John’s Commandaria (Cyprus)

Though it is not easy to find Commandaria in the UK, it is well worth tracking down!

This luscious Cypriot dessert wine has a history dating back to the Crusades and is produced from the indigenous grape varieties Mavro and Xynisteri grown on the slopes of the Troodos Mountains and dried in the sun for ten days before they are pressed.

With aromas of dried fruit and spices, and flavours of caramel, honey and nuts, this is an outstanding dessert wine.

Enjoy it by itself, with cheese or desserts. We had it with tiramisu – heavenly!

Available from Aspris & Son and Drink Supermarket (£11.79, 50cl.)

Pedro Ximénez: a dessert wine that’s a dessert in its own right!

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Pedro Ximénez

There is so much more to sherry than its image of that rather fusty bottle of Bristol Cream that lives at the back of the drinks cabinet and only makes an appearance when Granny has a glass at Christmas.

Indeed, sherry is an incredibly versatile and varied wine, ranging from dry fino sherry, pale lemon in colour, with aromas of apple and almond, and bready flavours from the yeast used in the ageing process, to the dark, lusciously sweet Pedro Ximénez sherry with its pronounced dried fruit flavours, made from the eponymous Pedro Ximénez grapes that have been concentrated by sun-drying.

And in between, there are the oloroso and amontillado dry sherries, and the pale cream, medium and cream sweet styles. The common denominator is that the wines that are used to make sherry must be matured in the Jerez region of Andalucía, and more specifically in the towns of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa Maria, and Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

Pedro Ximénez (PX for short) sherries are pure indulgence in a bottle. They are intensely sweet wines which are aged oxidatively and are deep brown, almost black, in colour. PX sherries typically have pronounced aromas of dried fruits with honey, coffee, chocolate, and caramel, perhaps liquorice. Treacly on the palate, with dried fruit and caramel flavours, there is sufficient acidity to balance the sweetness and create a velvety, long finish.

This Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Pedro Ximénez is a fine example of a PX sherry which ticks all the boxes. Honey, raisins, and toffee on the nose, almost like a mince pie, with coffee, caramel and toffee on the palate, this is a full-bodied wine that has been aged in a network of oak casks in a solera system.

Perfect as a dessert in its own right, it is also a match made in heaven for a chocolate mousse or a strong blue cheese. Or why not simply drizzle it over vanilla ice cream – delicious!

Available from Sainsbury’s . £8 (half bottle)