Sweet Wines in History
Sweet wines go back to ancient times. The most acclaimed wines in Rome were sweet and white. When ancient winemakers let their grapes raisin on the vine, or when they dried their grapes on straw mats, they knew the resulting wines would be sweeter and more concentrated in flavor. These wines were also more likely to withstand transportation to outlying areas.
Not all wines that start out with the grapes dried on mats are sweet. Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone — better known as just “Amarone” — is a dry wine made by fermenting to completion the juice inside these dried grapes. The name Amarone translates to “strongly bitter.”
In the Middle Ages, vintners in Venice and Genoa exported sweet dried grape wines to northern Europe. In addition, sweet wines from Hungary (Tokaji) and from South Africa (Constantia) were on every royal table in Europe.
