Typically they will have higher-than-average alcohol, around 15% or more. And then yet another variation is to vary the ingredients, sometimes even using something besides grapes.

A grape-based dessert wine might start with a variety of grape such as Muscat, Ortega or Huxelrebe, which contain higher amounts of sugar naturally. Sometimes sugar or honey might be added. Other dessert wines include sweet sherry, raisin wine, or ice wine, in which the grapes are partially frozen before being pressed to concentrate the must and hence raise the sugar level. Last but not least, there is also the method of using grapes carrying "noble rot", a special kind of mold that leeches out moisture while imbuing the grapes with a taste like honey or apricots.

Dessert wines are an intriguing niche to explore. Much variety is to be found here, and the true wine connoisseur will find that tracking down the more obscure dessert wines from the odd corners of the globe will result in many a memorable find.

In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wine drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines drunk after it. Thus most fortified wines are regarded as distinct from dessert wines, but some of the less strong fortified white wines, such as sherry and Muscat, are regarded as honorary dessert wines.

Quite a few of what are designated as 'dessert wines' are actually blended wines. One typical example is a fortified dessert wine. In fortifying a wine, a distilled beverage is blended with the wine, and since the spirit of choice is usually brandy, which itself starts with wine which is then distilled, a fortified dessert wine might have any number of various grape varieties from the different steps going into the mix.

One famous case of a blended dessert wine is Sauternes, the French dessert wine which is made from three grapes: Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle, which have been kissed by 'noble rot', the Botrytis Cinerea fungus, which produces grapes which are slightly shriveled like raisins and hence highly concentrated.

Another example of a blended dessert wine is ice wine, which is made from frozen grapes - sometimes even frozen right on the vine! Ice wine may be formed from a blend of any one a variety of grapes such as Riesling, Cabernet Franc, or Chardonnay. New World wine-makers are experimenting with blends of Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Merlot, or Pinot Noir.

Since dessert wines aren't held up to the same conservative culture that regular wines are, much more variation is tolerated and consumers are more open to innovation and trying new things. As a result, some of the greatest joys of dessert wines may be found in some out-of-the-way winery where some creative pioneer will have a few bottles of some experiment they've tried. New things are popping up all the time, making dessert wines one of the most intriguing corners of the wine world.

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