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Dessert Wines for Delivery or Pickup
The Instacart guide to dessert wine
Add a touch of elegance to any meal by serving dessert wine before or after dinner. Dessert wines are sweeter than regular white, red, rose, or sparkling wines and pair wonderfully with something sweet, as a relaxing beverage in the evening, or chilled on a warm afternoon. Enjoy the convenience of having your dessert wine delivered to your home when you use Instacart. Download the Instacart app today, and find your favorite dessert wine that an Instacart shopper will bring to your door.
About dessert wines
Most dessert wines come from late-harvest grapes or get bottled when the winemaker stops fermentation before all the yeast converts the grape sugar into alcohol. The residual sugar that remains after fermentation is what makes dessert wine sweet and adds to the higher alcohol content. Another way winemakers create dessert wines is by adding a distilled spirit such as brandy to make fortified wine. Winemakers make dessert wines from either red or white grapes, and these wines come in varying levels of sweetness. When searching for a very sweet dessert wine, read the label and look for terms that include:
- Dolce
- Dulce
- Doux
- Moelleux
When you want a lighter sweet dessert wine, look for wine terms that include:
- Amiable
- Semi-Dry
- Demi-Sec
- Semi-Secco
Types of dessert wines
In the United States, dessert wines are any wine with an alcohol content over 14%. The 5 main classifications of dessert wines include:
- Sparkling dessert wine: This style of wine tastes lovely as an aperitif or to sip on a warm afternoon. Winemakers add carbonation to sweet wine grapes such as Muscat, Chenin Blanc, or Riesling to make sparkling dessert wine.
- Lightly sweet dessert wine: These wines have loads of fruit flavor and are lovely to sip when served very cold. Look for Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Muscat or Moscato, and Viognier.
- Richly sweet dessert wine: Due to the high sugar content in this classification of dessert wines, they can age for years. Wines in this category include sauterne, ice-wine, late-harvest Muscat, and Gewurztraminer, as well as any grape that falls under the noble rot umbrella.
- Sweet red dessert wine: While these are not as common as sweet white dessert wines, you can find a few sweet dessert red wines that aren't fortified, and most of them come from Italy. Look for Schiava, Freisa, Lambrusco, and late-harvest Zinfandel, Malbec, and Petite Sirah.
- Fortified wine: Winemakers added brandy to red or white wine to increase the alcohol and sugar content to create fortified wines. Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala, and fortified Muscat fall into this category.
Desserts and food to pair with dessert wine
When pairing wine with food, keep the wine sweeter than the dish. If you drink dry wine with something sweet, as in dessert, the wine often tastes sour or bitter. Serving dessert wines with sweets helps enhance the flavors and sweetness of the dessert and bring out subtle nuances in the dessert wine.
- Sparkling dessert wine: Pair with treats such as chocolate-covered strawberries, candied nuts, or coconut macaroons.
- Lightly sweet dessert wine: Match with desserts such as fruit tarts, sorbets, Key lime pie, or lemon meringue pie. These wines also pair well with spicy food such as Indian or Thai cuisine.
- Richly sweet dessert wine: Pair with dessert items such as spice cake, spiced nuts, or caramel corn.
- Sweet red dessert wine: Choose rich dessert plates such as blueberry or blackberry tarts, chocolate souffle, or chocolate truffles.
- Fortified wine: Pair with poached spiced pears, strong cheeses, or pecan pie.
Dessert Wine Near Me
Buy your favorite Dessert Wine online with Instacart. Order Tawny, Chocolate Wine, Ice Wine, and more from local and national retailers near you and enjoy on-demand, contactless delivery or pickup within 2 hours.
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FAQs about dessert wine
Store all dessert wines around 55 degrees with a humidity level of about 70%, and keep the bottles in a dark location. Once you open your bottle of sparkling or lightly sweet dessert wine, keep it in the refrigerator and use it within 5-10 days. Richly sweet dessert wines, as well as fortified wines, have a high alcohol content and when stored properly can age for up to 50 years.
Once you open high-alcohol dessert wines such as richly sweet or fortified wine, they'll last for several months when stored properly. Sweet red wines can keep for several years, but once opened last up to three weeks in the refrigerator.
Generally, people sip slowly on dessert wines, and a 2oz pour is a normal serving size. To enhance the flavors and aromas of dessert wines, serve them in specialized port or sherry glasses. This style of dessert wine glass has a small, compact shape with a long stem and tapered rim. Ideally, you want to serve your dessert wines in crystal glasses, as the glassware refracts light and enhances the color of your wine. Serve sparkling dessert wine in a flute.