Sweet Wine

Sweet wines, also referred to as dessert wines, are produced to contain both high levels of sugar as well as alcohol. Due to the fact that the natural sugars in wine are sacrificed to produce alcohol during fermentation, the production of sweet wines tends to require additional winemaking in order to retain these, or add more. Adding sugar can take place before fermentation, known as chaptalization, or after in a process called Süssreserve. While natural sugar can be retained through concentration, removing water through either drying or freezing the grapes, or exposing them to the fungal infection Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot.

Sweet wines are produced all over the world, with some of the most renowned examples being those from the Sauternes sub-region of Bordeaux, Canadian ice wines and Tokaji from Hungary.

By virtue of its base material, most rums have naturally sweet flavours and these types of cask are not suited to all styles. As wine casks have in general, the use of sweet wine barrels, particularly Sauternes, has slowly increased since the turn of the 21st century. Releases are most commonly found from experimental independent bottlers in Europe however the number of distillers making use of such casks is growing too, with Demerara Distillers, Chamarel and the HSE brand among early adopters.