Dessert Wines
Sweet wines are a delicious and fitting end to a good meal. There are numerous kinds of dessert wines. This page gathers in one place the reviews for dessert wines from around the world. The page is broken up into sections that group dessert wines by style, so you can find the dessert wine you want quickly. These reviews are copied from elsewhere on my site (under their respective countries), so you should go to those pages for more educational details.
Port Style
Real Port is from Portugal and is a fortified wine produced in the Douro region. You can learn more about Port on the page on the Wines of Spain and Portugal. Port-style wines are sweet, red, and heavily fortified, with varying levels of wood.

December 2009 Bright and clean raisins with moderate wood, with a mellow and slightly musty finish.
$15 / bottle

12 January 2008 Dark sweet raisins and surprising amounts of wood for a ruby. Exceptionally heady.
$32 / bottle

1 June 2009 Bright raisin fruit with somewhat muddled wood. Unremarkable.
$12 / bottle

21 March 2010 Bright sweet raisins with a slight hint of nuts and oxidation on the finish. Relatively simple.
$11 / bottle

13 March 2008 Fruity dark raisins, light wood. Dry and spicy. Very heady and alcoholic.
$12 / bottle

3 April 2002 Sweet grape and raisin flavor, exceptionally smooth. Heady and strong, with a raisin and date finish.
$15 / bottle

8 January 2007 Dense raisin, date, and nuts over moderate wood. Smooth.
$50 / bottle

11 January 2008 Off-dry, rich raisins and dates over intense wood. Heady.
$45 / bottle

15 March 2004 Raisin and plum, with prune and wood incense notes.
$16 / bottle

24 December 2009 Dark raisins, wood, and nuts with sherry-like oxidization. Mellow and smooth.
$20 / 375ml

18 January 2008 Sweet and heady, with nuts and moderate wood. Lighter in flavor and sweeter than many Portuguese tawnies.
$10 / bottle
Sherry style
Real Sherry comes from Jerez in Spain and is an unusual oxidized fortified white wine, with a white raisin flavor and varying amounts of nuts. You can learn more about Sherry on the page on the Wines of Spain and Portugal. Sherry-style wines are made all over the world.

26 May 2011 Sweet raisins and prunes with a bit of petrol. Hot and heady. Relatively little wood.
$18 / bottle

19 July 2007 Dark and syrupy sweet raisins with toasty nuts and faint mushrooms. Powerful and sweet, very rich, long finish.
$?? / bottle

3 April 2002 Strong nutty flavor, and a primary flavor best described as shitake mushroom. Long and lingering. Very strong and intense.
$11 / bottle

26 July 2010 Rich dark sun-dried raisins and molasses. Extremely smooth mouthfeel and very mellow with abundant wood. Clean fruit with minimal earthiness and nuts.
$43 / bottle

10 May 2008 Pure liquid raisins, heady with a nutty wood feel.
$21 / 375ml

31 May 2004 Off-dry, with a deep toasty wood flavor and roasted almonds.
$13 / bottle

2003 Rich nutty flavor, with strong wood undertones. Thick, syrupy texture, very intense and alcoholic.
$14 / bottle
Muscat dessert wines
Intense dessert wines can be made from the moscato (muscat) grape, sometimes fortified. These wines are sweet and taste like more intense versions of the basic moscato. In Spain, these are usually moscatel; in France, much of it is Muscat de Beaumes de Venise; worldwide, it is usually sold as Muscat or Moscato. This list includes only still wine; the lighter (but still sweet) Moscato d'Asti is excluded.

6 January 2008 Sweet nectar, white raisins, and almonds. Heady and rich.
$13 / 500ml

16 October 2007 Blend of Parellada/Macabeo/Xarel.lo/Muscat 20/20/25/35. Riesling-like floral fruit, light tropical hints, slightly sweet, very short and watery finish.
$8 / bottle

4 September 2009 Syrupy sweet with orange blossoms and slight fruit pungency on finish.
$14 / 500ml

10 May 2008 Lovely oranges and peaches, rounded out with nuts and wood. Syrupy sweet and tasty.
$17 / 375ml

14 December 2007 Dense, sweet peach, melons, honey, and nectar. Thick texture, bright on the tongue, heady.
$14 / bottle

28 February 2004 Sweet melon and peach juice with a fair tang. Not at all cloying.
$13 / 375ml

20 June 2007 Sweet and heady melon, nectar, and spicy honey.
$14 / 375ml

22 April 2009 Rich sweet apricot and clover honey with the faintest hint of orange on the finish. Heavy mouthfeel. Quite sweet.
$13 / bottle

14 February 2010 Rich, sweet, and full-bodied. Bold peach and apricot with a strong hint of spiciness on the nose and finish. Zesty.
$17 / bottle

27 August 2008 Sweet and intense pears and apricots with light hints of nectar and tangerine. Smooth and not sticky.
$16 / 500ml

2004 Very sweet, with bold honeysuckle and melon, with a touch of spice. Round and plump. Sugary finish.
$9 / bottle

27 August 2006 Sweet peaches and apricot, mild citrus, honey, high acid. Tasty.
$16 / 500ml

11 September 2008 Sharp and racy with abundant citrus and spicy nectar. Crisp and not at all syrupy. Very high acid.
$18 / 500ml

28 June 2011 Ripe melons, honey, peach, nectar, and jelly. Spicy finish. Plumper and rounder mouthfeel.
$20 / 500ml

30 April 2010 Bright and crisp peach, apricot, and oranges. Sweet but not at all sticky.
$?? / 375ml

18 February 2008 Lively, spicy attack with dense and heady floral and grape essences and loads of honeysuckle and botrytis flavor. High alcohol. Heavy and sweet finish. Tastes more like Sauternes than Moscatel, but slightly lighter.
$16 / 500ml
Ice Wine and German-style Dessert Wine
This category includes dessert-style rieslings (beerenauslese and up) and ice wines, and their equivalents around the world. While Auslese-level wines are certainly quite sweet, they are left out as they are not often used as after-dinner drinks served in tiny glasses (and they would overwhelm the list).

2003 Very dense, like liquid raisins. Syrupy nectar flavors with moderate earthy tones and light mineral scent.
$34 / 375ml

17 November 2006 Sweet nectar with spicy honey, melon, and light floral tones. Rich.
$40 / 375ml

Fall 2002 Very rich and intense and heady. Thick nectar flavor and extremely zesty floral spice, like drinking sweet wildflowers. Woody and earthy finish. Very potent.
$15 / 375ml

20 January 2008 Sweet and rich, with flavors of nectar, honey, apples, and flowers. Slight tartness and headiness in the finish.
$35 / 500ml

25 January 2008 Strong and rich, bursting with forward peach, apricot, honey, nectar, and flowers. Extremely concentrated but deceptively pale in color. Extremely sweet with a sticky sugary finish.
$50 / 500ml

9 March 2009 Intensely sweet honey and nectar with a slight touch of citrus zest in the finish. Almost syrup-like and sickly-sweet.
$22 / bottle

?? Dense (but not overwhelming) sweetness with phenol, apricot, and nectarine notes. Hints of tropical citrus or pineapple in an ever-shifting fruit blend.
$19 / 187ml
Sauternes style
Sauternes is a sweet white wine from Bordeaux that has been attacked by the botrytis fungus, which removes much of the water in the grape, leading to richer and more concentrated flavors. Although the French Sauternes is the best known example of this style, botrytis-infected dessert wines are made worldwide.

8 August 2009 Deep syrup with orange blossoms, honey, and spice. Exceedingly rich. Never-ending finish.
$35 / bottle

2002 Light and sweet, with citrus and floral scents.
$11 / 375ml

2002 Rich and heady honey and ambrosia flavor, with flowers and a moderate mineral backing. Faint nut and wood flavors.
$30 / 375ml

2002 Deep mineral and melon flavor with light grassy tones. Very sweet. Slightly spicy. Intense and rich.
$19 / 375ml

13 March 2002 Extremely bold and powerful grapefruit flavor, with lots of honey. Oily/syrupy texture, like liqueor. No discernable grape flavor. Botrytisized flavor in the extreme.
$12 / bottle

28 May 2008 Sticky and spicy, with honeyed fruit and a slight damp mushroom taste.
$6 / 375ml

24 July 2004 Heady and overblown, with biting sweetness and petrol flavors.
$13 / 375ml
Other Styles
These dessert wines didn't fit in elsewhere.

19 March 2010 Intense peach, apricot, and citrus fruit over ample sweetness. A fruit cup in a glass.
$15 / 375ml

2004 Cloyingly, almost artificially sweet, with round blackberry and grape juice over wood. Violin bottle.
$?? / bottle

9 June 2010 Plump raisin grapes with a slight hint of nuttiness. Like a port trying to be sherry, but not as intense. Made from (red) Mavrodafni and Korinthiaki grapes solera-style.
$10 / bottle