For as long as I’ve been allowed to drinkalcohol I’ve had something of a love affair with the great Italian wines. I
want to try absolutely everything, so I make a special effort to search out
vintages that I’ve never sampled before in the hopes that I will find something
that can become a regular addition to my little favourites list. I swear some
people must think that I’m a little bit obsessed by now, as barely a week goes
by when I’m not taking delivery of a brand new bottle of wine. Of course, being
the sociable sort at heart, I am quick to share these delights with my friends.
However, the first taste is pretty much always reserved for me.
Over the years I have developed something
of a fondness for the sweeter wines that I can find. While I can appreciate the
depth offered by some of the more complex vintages that I have come across in
my years, I’ve always had something of a sweet tooth and my personal wine
collection skews heavily towards the sweeter side of things.
Frankly, anything that has a heavy hint of
fruitiness will find a happy place in my collection and I am not ashamed to
admit that some of my favourite sweet wines are kept aside for me and me alone.
After all, as much as I love having my friends over for a dinner party or to
just hang around, it just wouldn’t be right if I gave them the wine that I love
most of all. Besides, they are likely going to have different tastes than me so
I’m doing them a service by introducing them to bottles of wine that they would
otherwise not have run across before.
At least that’s how I’m going to look at
it!
The only time I don’t like to enjoy a
sweeter wine is when I’m eating a dessert. Even for somebody with as much of a
sweet tooth as me, there comes a time when a little too much is more than
enough so I’ll try to complement any richer dishes with a slightly more subdued
wine so I don’t end up with one overpowering the other and ruining the
enjoyment altogether.
When push comes to shove, I think the best
way to enjoy a sweet white wine is almost as a dessert in and of itself. When I
have dinner parties I tend to serve deep and complex reds, especially if I’m
serving rich food to go alongside it. If I do choose to break out one of my
sweeter wines it will always be for after the meal has been consumed, so that
my visitors get the chance to enjoy the wine on its own merits rather than
having it compete with the food I’m serving.
As for the wines I keep to myself…those
will usually be enjoyed at the end of a stressful day when there is nothing I
want to do more than curl up on the sofa and let the wine wash over me.
