What is a good sweet wine?

The best way to tell if a wine is going to be sweet is to look at the label. The varietals that produce sweeter grapes would be one indication (muscat, riesling etc) but perhaps the best indication is the alcohol by volume. If the alcohol content is lower, that means there is more residual sugar left in the wine after the fermentation ergo a sweeter wine. For instance, I like Inniskillin's Icewines. They are in the 9-10% alcohol by volume range and they are very sweet.

I would caution you against buying by varietal alone because the same grapes can produce a wide range of styles of wine. A riesling or gewurztraminer may taste fruity but be in the 13.5% a.b.v. range and not technically be a sweet wine. Sauternes are a great example of how a white varietal (sauvignon blanc) can make a sweet wine as well.

Generally speaking, you can tell how sweet a riesling is by it's classification on the label (auslese, beerenauslese, eiswein) so look for some of those at your local wine shop.

The best solution is to do a little research as to some possible wines that you may enjoy, then go to the local wine shop and ask. Most employees are pretty knowledgeable about what they have on their shelves. If they can't help you, don't go back to that place!

Any of these are wonderful sweet wines

Moscato d'Asti

Tokaji Azsu (sometimes spelled Tokay)

Vin Santos

Sauternes

Beerenauslese and the sweeter, more prized Trockenbeerenauslese

Eiswein (Ice Wine)

Ausbruch

Port

Cream Sherry (careful, there are a lot of terrible cream sherries out there, makes sure you find one that's actually from spain)

Pedro Ximenez (a special, very sweet style of sherry)

Selection de Grains Nobles

Bonnezeaux and Quarts-de-Chaume

Recioto della Valpolicella

while a wine is going via fermentation, the grape's organic sugars are switched over to alcohol by capacity of yeast. while a winemaker stops the fermentation technique short, a number of the wine's sugar continues to be unconverted into alcohol and makes up the wine's residual sugar (RS) content textile. that's this residual sugar that provides up the candy ingredient in a wine. we can basically style 4 components: candy, salty, bitter and bitter, yet we can scent hundreds of unique aromas. that's the interaction between our tastebuds and our olfactory purposes that enable us to perceive such form in style.

Muscat de Minerve

Zinfendel.

White or Red Zenfidel!!!!

try a white zinfandel