Alas, dessert wine too is a victim of industry writer fickleness, and finding time to fit it into your busy wine schedule between tawny port, Manzanilla sherry and grappa can be tough. Well for me, dessert wine is a constant joy, and the more traditional and recognised the better. While it can be a little pricey, you certainly don’t need to be forking out for a Chateau d’Yquem when there’s some cracking Tokaji, non-vintage Sauternes and Aussie Muscats doing the rounds for about a tenner a bottle. But in terms of value for money, to my mind the sweet wines of Monbazillac are King – so I went there to discover the secret of this affordable and consistent product. Sitting haughtily on a hillside above the beautiful medieval city of Bergerac in the Dordogne region of France is the iconic wine village of Monbazillac. The hillsides are carpeted with vines rolling down to the Dordogne river a couple of miles away. It is one of the most glorious views in France. The best of the region’s grapes – the main ones being muscadelle, sémillon and sauvignon blanc, and all of which are harvested by hand once the noble rot has set in during the onset of the chill – can be found at the crest of this hill next to the Chateau.

All the vines near the town are protected by the Monbazillac AOC (the acronym that ensures the wine is only available from grapes grown in that region), yet the Chateau’s own wines are the paragons of the style. In the Chateau’s outlet I paid out €16 (appproximately £13) for a 500ml bottle of tempting Chateau Monbazzilac 2011. This incidentally would be a lot harder to get hold of, and therefore more expensive, outside of France, for this is a gold-medal-winning wine, and rightly so. The honeyed notes offset with a tinge of grapefruit and elderflower makes it a really enjoyable entry wine. It’s called dessert wine, pudding wine or sweet wine, but I really don’t believe in saving it for the end of your meal – go French, have it with your appetizer. It is a remarkable match for pates (especially something like Jamie’s Old-school chicken liver parfait). Otherwise, if you really must wait until dessert, then it crackles when taken with citrus flavours such as sorbet or a jelly.

How about this clementine jelly together with a little piece of our Gluten-free citrus shortbread? Enjoy it responsibly, as it can come out a little bit stronger than your average wine – a small sherry schooner would suffice. Make sure it’s chilled and then left outside the fridge for 30 minutes at room temperature before serving to make sure all of the flavours have time to get over their chill and reveal their honeyed secrets.best fruity sweet white wine Although these AOC wines are available widely in the UK, and the Chateau’s own are a little harder to find, believe me when I say they’re worth the search.where to buy wine on sunday in parisWhen a meal finishes on a sweet note, what you choose to drink should ideally keep step. best wine bar long island

Every sip that you take should complement and balance rich desserts and light ones alike. Giving the last course its own bottle or half bottle of wine can make even a simple plate of cookies, such as meringues, or bakery-bought brownies seem lavish.Among the wines that match up well with dessert are myriad personalities, allowing you to choose one to suit the mood of the occasion and the flavors on the plate. Moscatos are light, jazzy, and almost as casual as a soft drink; smooth, nectarlike French Sauternes can spread warm sense of well-being; and a deep, butterscotch-scented fortified Spanish sherry can end a dinner on the perfect note of contemplation.Almost without exception, wines best suited for dessert are those that retain much of the grape's natural sweetness. Winemakers may accomplish this by a variety of methods, the most common and compelling to let the grapes remain on the vine more time than usual (not so long that they become raisins, but longer than grapes harvested for drier wines).

Nearly every wine region in the world produces a version of late-harvest wine, and most of these are made from white grapes. As moisture in the fruit evaporates, the juice concentrates, becoming sweeter, influenced by exposure the sun and, on occasion, by the beneficial botrytis cinerea fungus. The resulting flavors include some of brightest and most exuberant you'll find in wines, evoking fruits such peach, orange, and lychee, flowers such as jasmine, and honey.Many late-harvest wines are labeled as such and enjoyed as they are, but other wines are fortified to attain their sweetness. To create a fortified wine, the winemaker adds small doses of liquor (typically grape brandy) during fermentation, thereby disabling the yeasts and preventing them from converting all of the sugars in the wine to alcohol. Spain's sherry and Portugal's Madeira and port are three popular examples. Fortified wines often are aged in wooden casks for several years and blended to bring out amber tones of dried fruit, caramel, and roasted nuts.

The best of these also have a balancing wisp of tartness. Their intensity and slightly higher alcoholic strength (from 13 percent to 20 percent, as opposed to about 13 percent) make them ideal for pairing with rich and dense puddings, pastries, and cheeses. (Long before dessert, some fortified wines-drier sherries, for instance-might be served as superb partners for savories such as shellfish bisque.)Unfortified late-harvest wines, such as one made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes left to ripen on the vine, with their fruitier and more floral profile, work beautifully with almost all types of treats, from a bowl of fresh berries to a piece of deep, dark chocolate.Modest portions of sweet wines are sufficient; many are sold in half bottles. When serving, offer just a few tablespoons of fortified wine and a bit more than that of sweet, nonsparkling dessert wines. Both sorts should be slightly cooler than room temperature and served in very small, stemmed wine or cordial glasses (a set makes a fantastic house present packaged together with a fine half bottle).