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Doug[_1_] Doug[_1_] is offline
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Default Potassium sorbate, sweet wines, dessert wines, etc

Franco -
There really aren't any significant disadvantages about using
sorbate. I've read that perhaps one person in 10,000 or more can
detect the levels of sorbate needed to protect a wine from renewed
fermentation. For the rest of us, it does not affect the odor or taste
of the wine. If you have a reasonably fresh package of sorbate, there
is no reason it should not work. Sorbate does lose its effectiveness
over time, so an opened package of sorbate that is several years old
might not work properly. Use fresh stuff.

There are some people who feel strongly about not putting anything
"unnatural" into their wine. For them, adding sugar after opening the
bottle is a good solution. This is not always very convenient, though.
If you add sugar crystals to wine that has been chilled before
serving, it may be hard to get the sugar to dissolve. You can avoid
this problem by adding sugar syrup instead, but then you need to keep a
supply of sugar syrup on hand, making sure it does not spoil, etc. And
this approach really doesn't work well if you want to give a bottle to
friends or relatives. Personally, I also prefer to avoid adding things
to my wine, unless there is a good reason for it. In this case, I
think preventing renewed fermentation is a good enough reason.

I don't know that there is any very clear distinction between sweet
wines and dessert wines. I would expect that a "dessert" wine would be
at the far end of the sweetness scale. As the name implies, this is a
wine you would expect to serve with a sweet dessert course, or by
itself. Sweet wines would include a broader range of wines (most often
white), some of which might make sense to serve with food other than
dessert. But that is really a matter of taste. Pairing wines with
foods is all about what works for you.


Doug