In Victorian-era novels, the men are always gathering in one room after dinner for cigars and port/sherry while the women split off to do goodness knows what (knit?) elsewhere. We always knew women got the short end of that deal, because we know how delicious port/sherry/madeira can be. Save the crocheting, give us some dessert wine.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, let’s debunk these dessert wine myths: they are all very sweet, they are just for special occasions, they’re just good with cigars. The truth: The men in those novels weren’t drinking ultra-sweet wines, you should really have a bottle in your home most of the time, and they can help make some foods a terrific eating experience.

We tried a variety of dessert wines made all over the world that were sent to us for review. Pair any of these with some goodies and you’ll have a dinner to remember.

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Once a year, I make a Hungarian feast to honor my father, who died 10 years ago this month in a fiery plane crash. They are slightly random and difficult dishes to pair with wines, but after three years of trying, I finally feel confident that I’ve found some of the best wines for the dishes.

The first course is always a cold cherry soup. It’s sweetened with powdered sugar and served with a dollop of sour cream. After experimenting with everything from dry whites to rosés to juicy pinots, it met its match in the Caposaldo Moscato: a dessert wine for a dessert that passes as a first course. The sweetness ricocheted from the soup to the wine and back again. The slight effervescence in the wine barely brought out the sour cherries. Both soup and wine were light-bodied and playful and while a bit unconventional, it was pairing bliss.

The second course is always Paprikás Csirke (Chicken Paprika), a flavorful, hearty dish of chicken, onions, and green peppers and thickened with sour cream, served over homemade Hungarian noodles. The dish is heavy and rich and easily fills you up. This one is not so tricky to pair. I’ve had success with a pinot noir and I think you could go with a New-World syrah. Still, I opted to try a 2007 Royal Tokaji Furmint wine, a dry white table wine from Hungary. This wine was probably a couple of years past when it should have been drunk (whoops) and was fairly dark in the glass when the tasting notes denoted it should have been pale green-lemon. Dry thought it tasted like an old, dry riesling. It wasn’t bad at all, the dryness complemented the juiciness of the dinner very well and it was great fun to try a Hungarian table wine (other than Bull’s Blood…) but it probably would have been more magical if the wine was younger. Read the full story

Toss me a tokay? No problem. Shove me a sauternes? I can dig it. But oh…I think I finally found my match in sweet dessert wines. I am speaking, of course, of the icewine. The sweet wine that finally took me down, had me whimpering “Enough! Please! Just a touch of acidity!”

Icewine is made from grapes that are frozen while still on the vine. The grapes are then pressed and, because the water in the grapes freeze but not the sugars, you’re left with a smaller yield of super-concentrated wine. Botrytis cinerea or noble rot, which is responsible for producing most of the sweet wines, has nothing to do with icewine. Read the full story

Photos: South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Whether you like wine, spirits or even coffee, there really is something for everyone at the Grand Tasting Village. In fact, there’s so much to choose from, it can start to feel overwhelming. The Swirl Girls stuck with the wine and found a few nice gems. Here’s what caught our eyes – and tastebuds – this year:

Dry’s favorites from the village:

2009 Umani Ronchi Casal di Serra Verdicchio Classico Superiore
A great way to start my day at SoBe. It’s a light, fresh wine of citrus and minerals with a dry finish.

2005 Rivera Il Falcone, Castel del Monte Riserva
A nice, medium-bodied wine with a nose of sweet plums and earth, fine tannins and a long finish. Read the full story

Sweet and Dry have been keeping warm this winter by raiding the sample drawers for their favorite juice. All these wines were samples sent free for review. Here are our findings – once again – the good, the bad and the ‘meh.’

From Sweet:
Taylor Fladgate Late Bottle Vintage 2003 ($19.99 at Total Wine and $21.99 at Crown)

Oh, my delicious! If cherries, raspberries, vanilla and a hint of baking cloves interwoven with a smart, smooth, sophisticated sweetness are your thing, then run, run, run and purchase a case of this LBV port. I would definitely buy this for everyday drinking, especially if I lived up north and hibernated for nine months a year by a big fireplace with a shaggy dog.

2009 Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc ($9.97 at Crown)

I pretty much melt when I hear the words “New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc” and this one is a great bottle to turn to – especially with the right food! With a nose of lime, lemon, orange blossoms and grass, this is light, crisp, refreshing and particularly cooling with spicy food. It’s not too crisp or acidic and acts a bit smoother than some sauv blancs I’ve had. It didn’t blow me away but it’s an enjoyable, safe bet. Read the full story

It was appropriately named the Secrets Wine Dinner.

Set on the Windsor Gardens Hotel property in Palm Beach Gardens, the Cocktails & Dreams Bistro is on busy U.S. 1, but still tucked away. The pretty wood, granite and stone dining area (with a gorgeous patio/pool setting right outside) sported orange flower arrangements and my favorite sight of multiple wine glasses at each plate.

We were there for Chef Joseph Angelucci and Kyle Pintarelli’s “Up in Smoke” wine dinner, featuring vino from Opici Wine Company of Florida. The chefs worked with Opici consultant Justin Cartlidge on the menu and the result was that the unexpected met the delicious in a win-win meal. (In the photo above, Kyle and Rachel Briggs of Rockstar Catering. Photo courtesy Windsor Gardens Hotel.)

Each wine and dish was introduced with a little background and explanation. Cigars were available from Sabor Havana cigars (to be smoked outside only, since there was plenty of smoke in the food). The service was excellent, and the wine and food… well, read on.

A fruit-forward, light Clayhouse Adobe White 2008 wine started the meal, and this was one of the big wine winners of the night. It is a light straw yellow, with a floral nose and a taste of pear, citrus and apples. A Paso Robles wine, it’s just a bit off-dry with a crisp, short finish. Thumbs up all around, said table companions Ramona, Ray, Bette Anne and Claire. “This is a Saturday afternoon wine,” said Bette Anne.

Interesting wine tidbit: The Clayhouse is made from 22 percent viognier, 18 percent sauvignon blanc, 17 percent grenache blanc, 16 percent roussanne, 6 percent chardonnay, 5 percent chenin blanc and 16 percent princess. Princess? Yes, it’s part of the blend, but not listed on the label because it’s not yet an approved varietal for table wine.

This tasty white was paired with a tequila-cured gravlax with smoked Dead Sea salt, gaufrette potatoes and white truffle aioli. The food was perfect with the Clayhouse White – the gravlax, salt and truffle and the wine together was a solid pairing by the chefs.
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Growing up in Nebraska, I always considered summer to be the one season of unabashed pleasure and easy living. Winter was brutal, fall was revered but unpredictable, and spring was fleeting. But summer? Summer meant long, lazy evenings spent chasing fireflies; lips stained red from just-picked strawberries that were en route to becoming sticky sweet jam; root beer floats — but only after my mother finished the hot work of mowing the grass. Summer was a stolen season of easy indulgence.

Here, summertime is an intense landscape for serious fun: boating, swimming, rafting, beaching, barbecuing, resting. It’s the time of year to gather up your closest friends, spend a minimal amount of time fussing in the kitchen and head out to the pool.

We did just that on a recent Saturday as the temps climbed steeply into the 90s. In Swirl Girl summer style, we uncorked a few fabulous bottles and whipped up some easy food pairings. We feasted on fruit gazpacho, orzo salad, summer tomatoes, shrimp cocktail and tropical fruit salsa and chips.

Favorite friends, easy food, cool wine — what more could you ask for?

Perhaps a slight breeze … Read the full story

One of my greatest joys is cooking fancy dinners for my dearest friends. But it’s always just a bit better when I’ve got a friend in the kitchen armed with a spatula and a smile.

This week, I cornered two friends and armed them with utensils. I had a lofty menu and I prefer tackling new dishes with a little bit of backup help. And of course, I was throwing together a mid-week dinner party for six at the last minute. Good thing my friends think this is fun, too.

All of the wines we consumed were sent free for review.

I wanted to start with a light spring salad: fennel, grapefruit, oranges and avocado on a bed of arugula. For this pairing, I reached for the 2009 Benziger Sauvignon Blanc. (The 2008 is available at Total Wine for $12.49 and at Crown for $13.99.) It worked well with the citrus, as California Sauv Blancs tend to be a bit citrus-y.

Sometimes the wine takes center stage and the food takes a supporting role and sometimes they work as partners. But here were so many flavors in the salad, so much depth, that the wine sat back a bit and let the salad have center stage. Read the full story

We promise we’ll have fun. You will drink terrific wines in lush surroundings, paired with delicious bites, at a great price!

Yes, it’s the next Swirl-Up with the SGs – come and be a Swirl Girl or Guy for an evening! You will be glad you did.

In case you somehow skipped the news of our first Swirl-Up, read more here. The second promises to be as good or better than the first. We love being hostesses.

The facts: Join us from 6 to 8 p.m., May 6 at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, for six delicious wines, yummy bites and a fact-filled, enjoyable evening. Tickets are $45 each, with a percentage from each ticket going to charity.

The second Swirl-Up wil be in the Angle Room at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan. Staff photo by J. Gwendolynne Berry.

The caveat: We have limited seating for 30 people, so you need to reserve soon. Call 561-540-4924 and have your credit card handy, as this is a pay-up-front deal. (The last Swirl-Up sold out in 15 minutes!)

Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll be drinking with us:

2008 Marlborough Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc:
From Sweet:
I had tried this delicious wine before, so I was excited when I realized we had the chance to pour it.
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Although I’ve been back many a time since I first wrote about La Dolce Vita in Lake Worth over six months ago when we launched Swirl Girls (see previous story), it’s time to share another tasting from my favorite neighborhood hangout.

In celebration of the holidays, co-owner Asher White presented a varied selection, from the bubbly to the fortified. And although tasting new wines in such an intimate atmosphere as that at La Dolce Vita is part of the reason to race there from work on a Friday evening, the most appealing part to me is just walking through the door.

I have found the “Cheers” of wine bars, where most everybody knows your name. I can always count on seeing four or five familiar warm faces there, and leaving a couple of hours later knowing a few more. At the very least, l’ll always find a room full of gregarious souls who love to celebrate wine. Read the full story