Dessert Wines

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

dessert wines, usually mean sweet wines but according to American regulations, any wine between 14 and 24% alcohol is designated a dessert wine, even if dry and unfortified, and attracts a higher tax rate. The proportion of California wine that qualifies as dessert wine has been about 10% since 2005.