Sweet red wines offer a distinctive experience for wine connoisseurs and casual drinkers alike. Whether you’re new to wine or looking to expand your palate, these wines have centuries of tradition and are a luscious fruity alternative to sweet white wines or dry wines for that matter.
We’ll explore the various categories or styles of sweet red wines and semi-sweet red wines in detail in future posts. Here, just like we did in our earlier post on the World of Sweet Wines, we aim to whet your appetite and introduce you to sweet wines and semi-sweet red wines. We did this separately for reds because they are hard to find, but your search will be much easier and more rewarding now…if you keep reading!
So why are sweet red wines so rare?
In my opinion, the tannins in red wines can clash with the sweetness, so it’s difficult to make sweet red wines – especially in the semi-sweet category – but when you discover the truly special red wines of the world (made for centuries and associated with religious rites) you may never go back to white!
My two attempt at experimentation with sweet red wine production was on our 2019 and 2021 harvest, in a Syrah Pétillant Naturel (2019) – notice the slight effervescence in the video below – and non-sparkling field-blend (2021). They were not bad, however 2021 was too effervescent and resulted in red wine on the cellar ceiling from popping corks and bottles breaking – creating a bloody mess!
So let this be a red alert to anyone trying this at home using in Pét Nat or arrested fermentation method – so you don’t see red or fall in the red – promise that’s the last ‘red’ expression!
In short, the conditions must be right to do this correctly: temperature, yeast strength, residual sugar and alcohol levels, type/strength of bottle and closure, etc – these must all conspire for your success.
Beyond over-carbonation, again, the biggest difficulty in my opinion, is the difficulty with getting the tannin-sweetness balance right, which I am convinced explains why there are far fewer semi-sweet red wine categories than other types of sweet and semi-sweet wines.
Note also, that the longer grapes stay on the vines – one way to achieve higher levels of sugar – the less acidic they will be (for example, grapes to make high-acid sparkling wine are the first to be picked in the harvest season) so acid as the powerful ingredient to balance sweetness is greatly diminished (in the case of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah in California – the extent of this effect on other varieties and appellations will differ).
Semi-Sweet Red Wines
Let us dive right in for some examples of semi-sweets! A luscious Lambrusco – a red wine from Northeastern Italy – is a delicate & refreshing experience, while a well-made California old-vine sweet Zinfandel can complement a steak surprisingly well – my favorite of the California Zins are ones made at Deerfield Ranch in Sonoma.
The intrepid taster could venture – not even far from Lambrusco territory in the Emilia Romana region of Italy, to the neighboring Piemonte region, for a bottle of a semi-sweet red wine style called Brachetto d’Acqui. Of course, one could stay in Italy and close to shore as it were, by sticking with Red Moscato made from the Black Muscat grape.
Semi sweet red wine is generally achieved by stopping fermentation through one or several methods combined:drastically cooling the fermentation temperature, sulfur addition, spirit alcohol addition. Another way is back sweetening known as chapilalization where one adds grape juice / concentrate or sugars after the end of fermentation.
Sweet Red Wines & their Styles
Fortified Style
On the full-on sweet wine side there is, of course the eponymous Portuguese standard – everyday style or Tawny Port. Port is made by adding a fortifying spirit like brandy that stops the fermentation (stay tuned for the interesting back-story of how this technique emerged).
There are other fortified sweet red wines awaiting the cognizanti – like a French Maury – made to age and evolve to taste like a combination of burnt carmel, toffee an coffee – from the Roussillon regions (whose AOC dates from 1936). In a similar style to Port and Maury are Banyuls from the Pyrenees that are produced in three styles and Rasteau from the southern Rhône (although Rasteaus can be red, rosé or white).
Wine cave Quinta da Boeira (Porto, Portugal)
Vin de Paille Style
From the French word for straw, paille, these wines are distinct for being dried on straw mats after harvest, a process that allows for slow evaporation of water and concentration of sugars. This is a more time-intensive method than fortifying with sprits and is, unfortunately, less and less common.
It takes about 200 pounds of grapes to make a case of 12 bottles, so of course it will be expensive. A variation of this technique is employed.
Passerillé Styles
Unlike drying on straw mats, in this style, grapes are allowed to dry on the vine, sometimes snapping the branches so the berries and clusters are cut off from water and nutrients. For example, in the Jura region of eastern France, it is common for grapes to hang instead of lie on straw beds.
Combined Styles
The famous red wine of Valpolicella is Amarone – a dry wine which made in the Vin de Paille method of drying the grapes on straw mats – yet when fermentation is stopped with the addition of alcohol in the fortified style, instead of getting Amarone we get Recioto della Valpolicella. The Recioto of Valpolicella is a sweet passito wine – wine that is dried using either the passerillé method and the fermentation stopped. The taste is full-bodied, sweet and velvety smooth.
These are but a smattering of sweet red wine categories…
More awaits the enthusiastic and curious! But friends, please show some discretion: once you port yourself over to the congnizanti side of the room, you may be tempted to show-off by reciting sweet red wine categories, such as Recioto, like a Christmas gift wish list – resist the urge, rather use your newfound knowledge to explore deeper and share a glass with a friend or two!
Never scare of wearing red and always stay sweet!
Cheers,
Ayele Solomon, winemaker