With foie gras or cheese. Great to begin or end the meal.
I actually popped my first dessert wine (an 01 Suduiraut) in god knows how long. Pretty unimpressive and only half the bottle got finished. Now I remember why I donāt open them. 
Sarah - I find when I have a bigger group for dinner, 6 or more, it is the perfect occasion to open one, particularly with a group of non wine geeks. We usually will do it after dessert or as a dessert alternative for those who want it. I almost always find someone who insists they hate dessert wines and ends up loving it. Unfortunately, not sure at the moment when we will have that opportunity again. As those occasions are not a weekly occurrence even in normal times, I am not buying nearly as much Sauternes and other sweet wines as I used to.
Madeira, talk about a long shelf life. Iāll buy the occasional auslese, but only one offs of truly sweet wines.
I like semi-sweet or sweet with cheese. I thought I gave up on bleu cheese, but some Roquefort from Artisanal was really good. Usually bleu gives me the soapy taste. I think Iāve had exactly one good sweet wine with dessert pairing and I love sweets, but not the real sugary stuff.
Edit: I really havenāt bought sweet wines since our move. I used to buy some ports and the Fenili from Corte Gardoni along with some Sauternes/Barsacs from Moore Brothers. I also havenāt bought much cognac since my favorite is Jean Filloux. I also like vermouth, chinato, good pineau des charentes, anything Vergano (the Luli is like exotic crack) and macvin.
Was there a question I was supposed to answer?
Iām pretty much in the same camp. I very rarely drink sweet wine anymore. I have 10 cases of German Riesling and only 4 bottles (three 750s, one 375) are Auslese. Rest are Kab/Spat. I have 2 bottles of vintage Port. I open about one bottle a year. I purchased a case of '77 Dow on release and still have one bottle remaining. I own no Sauternes. I used to have 2-3 cases. If someone brings a bottle, Iāll drink an ounce or two. Thatās about all I can stomach.
Very similar for me ā I have a reasonable stock of them (though far from the 100s of bottles!), but rarely drink them. I think the last time I opened one was for a large gathering about a year ago ā it was a 96 Huet. The wine was stunning, and I thought to myself that I should open one again soon; I have cases of 96-97 Huet moulleux. But here we are, probably 15 months later, and I havenāt opened another bottle of dessert wine.
Probably the last bottle of dessert wine I bought was a 2003 BA or TBA. There are probably 5 cases total in the cellar, and it will be enough to last me the rest of my life.
Port is in a different category for me. I probably open a couple of bottles every winter, to eat with toasted pecans.
But I just canāt do Sauternes any more. The stuff just tastes like drinking a caramel. I hate caramel.
I love sweet wines. I buy a ton of auslese and drink them from half bottle all summer long as an aperitif. I buy anywhere from 6-24 bottles of TBA/BA per year but I open very few as I intend to age them. I buy a bit of eiswein for early drinking as I find that it tends not to improve or to fall apart completely far too often.
I have had to cut down on buying dessert wines and am now at roughly 230 bottles (was over 300 a few years ago and maybe 25 or so are marriage year and birth year wines for nephew and his daughter) and figure I need to drink a bottle a month for the rest of my life. I belong to three wine tasting groups and almost every dinner (and family gathering) ends with a bottle or two (sometimes two of us bring dessert wines, I usually do) and they are usually considered wines of the night my several of us. My collection has Auslesen, Sauternes, Ports, Lorires, and Alsatian (VT and SGN) in roughly that order. I started out liking Sauternes and Ports most, but have gravitated more to German and Loire.
I do not try to pair the wines with food other than cheese with a few exceptions. While I donāt usually open them at home, my wife and I are at this moment drinking a half bottle of Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal VT (thanks Envoyer) with Indian food.
So for me it hasnāt been a problem drinking them (at least until two months ago).
The upside to sweet wines falling out of fashion is that they are quite inexpensive on the secondary market vis a vis their quality level. Just picked up pristine 750ml half cases of 1988 ChĆ¢teau Lafaurie-Peyraguey for $49 per bottle, and 1995 ChĆ¢teau Coutet for $23. I imagine it will take several years to work through them all, but no rush.
Speaking of dessert wines, I just had a 1983 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel AP 17 and it was singing! Great wine. So much life and brightness, with layers and layers of complexity. Also, it was only mildly sweet at this point.
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To honor this thread, I think I will order some cheese from Paris and open up a Weinbach SGN.
Too bad Sarah , sweet wine is fantastic . My wine-club gets together once-a-month and we always finish the tasting/dinner with 2 sweet wines , usually Sauternes . Mostly Yquem but also de fargues , Rieussec , Gilette , Coutet etc. Sauternes is like the old masters , not really ā en vogue ā these days .
The BIG advantage is that you can find pristine bottles at auction from 1967 and older at reasonable prices . These bottles are jus wonderful . I drink about 4 cases of Sauternes every year ( and buy much more ). Last month , I bought 2 bottles of Chateau dāArche 1893 ( Belgium has a lot of great old cellars and treasures come up once-in-a-while at auction ). They look good , we canāt wait to get together again after the lock-down .
My wife loves auslese , so we drink a lot of Donnhof and Keller . These wines are low in alcohol, refreshing and not expensive at all .
I just looked and my cellartracker stats show that, since I opened my CT account, I drank more sweet and off-dry wines (in % relative to all wines drunk) than I own (in % relative to all wines owned). I hardly have any fortified wines although I really like them. Most are Riesling SpƤtlese, Auslese, some BA, TBA, Eiswein, Vouvray Demi-Sec and Moelleux, Quarts de Chaume/Bonnzeaux, Sauternes & Barsac, Alsace Pinot Gris/Riesling/Muscat/GewĆ¼rztraminer VT and SGN, Jurancon Moelleux, Jura Vin de Paille. For every dinner with friends, thereās a dessert wine on the table. Even when eating at home with my wife (just us two), on weekends, we often open a half bottle for cheese and dessert as that is usually the best pairing. Rhubarb desserts with low to medium botrytis Sauternes or Riesling Auslese, apricot desserts with Sauternes or Auslese, apple desserts with sweet Chenin Blanc, cream based desserts with Moscato dāAsti or Muscat VT from Alsace, herb / plant based desserts (e.g. with woodruff or elderflower) with Ruwer or Saar Auslese, etc. I rather only drink very little dry white or red for dinner before cheese/dessert just to have some reserves for a glass of sweet wines with dessert (and sometimes cheese). Most of the best wines I ever drank were sweet wines (old Huets, dāYquem, Climens, MĆ¼ller-Catoir Auslese upwards, older GrĆ¼nhaus, PrĆ¼m, Egon MĆ¼ller, KarthƤuserhof, old Bassermann Jordan & von Buhl, old Eltz, Langwerth von Simmern, etc.). Their magic is unmatched.
I also have some bottles of 1946 Don Convento PX, Toro Albala which is a totally different type of desert wine and an incredible pleasure to drink.
This was produced with Pedro Ximenez grapes dehydrated under the sun in 1946 but only bottled in September 2011. It is deeply powerful and sweet and salty at the same time. Its like drinking the best Christmas cake you have ever had. To me this is a winter wine and I have opened several bottles of this at the end of dinner parties with good friends where it was met with universal enthusiasm.
I donāt have much experience with sweet wine but if it doesnāt pair that well with sweet dessert like cakes and such what actually does?
For example, chocolate cake, pear crumble, tiramisu?
And regarding food match for Sauternes : ā young ā Sauternes can be creamy and sweet but aged Sauternes has wonderful acidity matching the sweetness . For me , aged means at least 40 years old . With cheese , especially stronger ones , aged Sauternes is a much better match than red wine , imo .
Iām with Rich and some others. Every so often I realize that I havenāt had one in a while and make a point to open something. In particular a little over 2 years ago I was talking with Nano about how much I like port and yet I hadnāt had one in about 5 years. I decided to make a concerted effort to buy and open some. 2 years later Iāve managed to buy 3 bottles and open one. I had another one planned for an event in early May butā¦
I have less of a problem with Sauternes but it rarely gets pulled except in the context of large planned dinner parties such as our monthly blind wine group. Whenever I have one I always think I need to drink it more often, at least if itās from a higher acid vintage like 88 or 01.
Moelleux, Moelleux 1er Trie, and Auslese match well with a wider array of foods so I have no real trouble with them and drink them fairly often, mostly at offlines at Chinese restaurants. Havenāt had a BA, TBA or Eiswein in years and I donāt own any. A Donnhoff eiswein I opened about 10? years ago still lives as a very, very fond memory but Iām priced out of those.
A glass of top flight PX is something I can easily linger over for an hour and it keeps forever in the fridge. Maybe I should pull one from storage (I think of that about once a year and never do it). Of course most PX tend towards the cloying side but the good stuff is incredibly rich and complex with an attractive bitterness to balance the sugar.
Iām with those who think sweet wines with dessert are overkill. Either on their own or with something compatible and savory. For example Sauternes is not my favorite pairing for lobster but I do like it.
So put me in the camp with those who still like them but rarely drink them.
2002?
For me itās coffee or tea. Or maybe armagnac. Just speaking personal preference of course. When the dessert comes out I stop drinking wine as my palate is officially closed for business.
For me the key is that the wine has to be sweeter than whatever it is accompanying (if anything). I mostly drink dessert wines on their own or with blue cheese (depending on the wine; not all work, there are many types). For a sweet wine to work with dessert I find there needs to be a contrast in the food so if itās a cake then a spice cake or similar. Pear and walnut tart seems to work well. Sometimes fresh figs. Chocolate cake or anything creamy do not work at all for me.
Sarah, totally agree. And I think almost every wine person I know is in the same place. We have about 150 bottles of d"Yquem in the cellar, and our recent run rate is about one bottle a year. Fortunately, we know that it lasts forever, and will be there for our kids to drink or sell.
I donāt buy many and I have had the same issue about finding a time to open them.
Having said that when I do have them I really enjoy them. I do like them with cheese and starting a meal with cheese is perfectly acceptable. Hell, making cheese the entire meal is more than acceptable.
If I had a lot I needed to use, I reckon I could find some cooking uses for them - poaching fruits, a sabayon or jelly. Chicken/duck livers or foie gras are a fairly classic sort of pairing where Iāve seen Sauternes or similar to deglaze pans and/or make quick sauces. Iām sure thereās bunch of french recipes out there that make use for it. It might be hard to justify using the d"Yquem in the cooking though!