Nearly every sweet wine sold here is Italian, low in alcohol and lightly sparkling. What separates them is how much sugar is left, and that decides what you can drink them with.
Moscato is the lightest
The Muscat grape smells of peach, orange blossom and apricot on its own, before anything is added. It usually runs between five and nine percent alcohol, half what an ordinary wine does, which is why two glasses on a hot afternoon costs you nothing.
Stella Rosa is sweet with a bubble
Semi-sparkling means a soft fizz rather than foam. The Black is made from dark grapes and is the one everybody knows. The Blackberry and the Watermelon are sweeter still. All of them want to be properly cold, and properly cold means two hours in the fridge.
The 1.5 litre is the right sum
Ten glasses instead of five, for less than two small bottles. For a table that's going to drink sweet wine all afternoon it's the obvious buy, and once opened it keeps for days, because sugar preserves.
What it goes with
Everything a dry wine can't manage. Spicy food, because sweetness cools heat. Dessert, fruit, cake. And salty cheese, which is the pairing nobody expects and the one that works best.
One warning about sugar and temperature
Cold hides sweetness. A sweet wine served warm cloys; the same wine properly chilled tastes fresh. If one ever struck you as too sweet, the odds are it simply wasn't cold enough.
Beverage World Package Store
6731 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Doraville, GA 30360. (770) 441-0001. Open 10am to 9pm Monday to Wednesday, 10am to 11pm Thursday to Saturday, and 11am to 9pm Sunday. Delivery from $4.99.
On our shelf right now
Prices and stock read from our own inventory when this page was built.