Dessert Wine - Natural Sweetness

Natural Sweetness

In the absence of other techniques, makers of dessert wine have to produce their sugar in the vineyard. Some grape varieties, such as Muscat, Ortega and Huxelrebe, naturally produce a lot more sugar than others. Environmental conditions have a big effect on ultimate sugar levels - the vigneron can help by leaving the grapes on the vine until they are fully ripe, and by green harvesting and pruning to expose the young grapes to the sun. Green harvesting reduces the number of bunches on a vine early in the summer, so that the sugar production of the leaves is divided between fewer bunches. Unfortunately the vigneron cannot control the sun, but a sunny year can help sugar levels a lot. The semi-sweet Auslese wines in the German wine classification are probably the best example of this approach; most modern winemakers perceive that their customers want either fully dry or 'properly' sweet dessert wines, so 'leave it to nature' is currently out of fashion. But most of the Muscats of ancient times were probably made this way, including the famous Constantia of South Africa.