Swap that heavy dessert for a refreshingly sweet dessert wine that tickles your taste buds. Varieties range from the delicately frizzy type to full-bodied flavors and sweeter styles. Wine lovers enjoy savoring these wines on their own or pairing them with salty cheese or light desserts to round off a meal. Brewers use white or red grapes to make this wine, which can be sparkling, fortified, lightly sweet or strongly sweet.

Extra sweet grapes are a key ingredient in dessert wines. The grapes ensure there is enough sugar left over after fermentation to make the wine taste sweet. Brewers ferment crushed grapes, and, in the process, form alcohol by breaking down the sugar. To ensure the wine tastes sweet, manufacturers stop the fermentation by super-cooling the wine or adding brandy to it. The result is a delicious wine with a bold flavor of natural grape sugars.

Sweet wines are a broad category within wines. Some popular types include sparkling, still, fortified, sweet or dry. For a spritzy wine with high acidity that is not very sweet, try a sparkler.

If you seek higher alcohol in your wine, fortified wines are an ideal choice. Manufacturers add brandy to the wine during or after fermentation, and that timing defines whether the end product is dry or sweet. A wine fortified before fermentation has sweeter notes since there is more residual sugar, while wine fortified after fermentation is dry. These wines also have a greater shelf life once opened because of their higher alcohol content. Vermouth wine is a style that's richly aromatic.

Pour a glass of wine to add sweet notes to your dining experience. Shop Drizly or see if we've made it to your city. Click these handy links to search for Drizly in your city, and look for liquor stores on Drizly near you.