0.375 liter

This still Muscat, which was conceived as the "little brother" of Torcolato and Acininobili, is a masterpiece and proves once again that Fausto Maculan is one of the world's best producers of dessert wines. Dindarello enchants with a marvellous blend of peach sorbet, kiwi and fresh mint. These aromas accompany the wonderfully full flavour right through to the finish. Its perfect balance between sweetness and acidity will ennoble any meal. SUPERIORE.DE

The name is the programme – and a promise. "Tre Filer": three rows, three grape varieties, one idea. Turbiana, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grow on the chalky, clayey soils of Lugana di Sirmione, the southern shore of Lake Garda, which Ca' dei Frati has understood like no other winery in the region for generations. What is made from these grapes follows an old logic with modern self-confidence. The harvest takes place late – deliberately too late, one might say. What is left over goes into the fruttaio, the drying room, and rests there for at least ninety days. During this time, the berries shrink and everything concentrates: sugar, flavours, character. Then comes the surprise: no wooden barrels, no barriques – instead, twelve to fourteen months in steel on the fine lees, followed by a year of ageing in the bottle. A sweet wine that dispenses with any opulent wood flavour and instead focuses on purity.

The name says it all: "torcolare" – to twist, to braid. In Breganze, it was once a tradition to braid the Vespaiola grapes into plaits after the harvest and hang them under the cellar ceiling so that the air could circulate between the berries. An exercise in patience that takes months and ends with liquid gold. Fausto Maculan did not invent this wine – he saved it. When he took over the winery in the 1970s, Torcolato was an oxidised, syrupy relic. Fausto turned it into a modern sweet wine of international calibre: precise, fresh, lively. Today, 10–15% of the grapes are still woven and hung as Rosolo using the old method, the rest are dried in modern crates. After four months, the berries have lost almost 70% of their weight. Slow fermentation in steel tanks for around a month, followed by a year in French barriques.

Before there was Soave, there was this wine. In the fifth century, the Roman senator Cassiodorus praised a sweet wine made from dried grapes at the court of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric – acinaticum, the original form of what is now called Recioto di Soave. Fifteen hundred years later, in 1998, it became the first Venetian wine with DOCG status. And yet very few people know it. The story has been reversed: Amarone, which originated in the 1930s as a "runaway" Recioto – a barrel that accidentally fermented through –became a world star. Recioto, its ancestor, remained in the shadows. Guerrieri Rizzardi's version comes from old pergola vines in Costeggiola, planted between 1960 and 1998 on volcanic gravel. Only a third of the harvest is deemed worthy of drying in fruttaio for three to five months – a selection within the selection.

In Roman-medieval times, they called this sweet wine monument Acinatium – from the Latin "acinus", the grape berry. A name that encapsulates the essence of this extraordinary wine: made only from the very best and ripest individual Garganega berries, a selection of such precision that it borders on obsession. For the Tessari sisters, this rare Recioto is more than just a wine. It is the centrepiece of their family history, the wine of holidays and family gatherings, the first drop you would give a child to taste, if it were allowed and appropriate ...

Copper-coloured with light brown reflections. The bouquet is floral, sweet and complex. On the palate, its typical Moscato flavours are carried by honey, dried fruit, caramel and a hint of musk. Creamy and dense on the palate with a well-balanced acidity that gives it plenty of freshness. Overall, Aestas Passito is a dessert wine for us that is hard to beat in terms of excitement and speciality and where you can feel the dedication and certain wine craziness with every sip. SUPERIORE.DE

Here comes a wine that completely tantalises the senses: Maximo is a sweet wine rarity based on Sauvignon Blanc, harvested at the height of the Villa Bianchi estate – where humidity and dry winds favour the noblest form of Botrytis cinerea. The grapes ripen on the cool Colli del Verdicchio before they are hand-picked several times and transferred to the cellar, where they are pressed particularly gently in a small Vaslin press basket. Spontaneous fermentation takes place at 15 °C for around a month. After static clarification, the wine matures in small stainless steel tanks for around a year.

Piera Dolza means "soft stone" and is the name of a very rare, historic dessert wine that was first produced in the traditional Prosecco region around Conegliano around 1600. It is only thanks to the initiative of 7 small local producers that it is being produced again today.

A grape variety like a secret: Rosenmuskateller migrated from Sicily to the Alps in the middle of the 19th century and found its second home on the alluvial soils of the Anreiterhof farm in Moritzing near Bolzano. Today it is one of the rarest grape varieties in South Tyrol – and the Rosis from the Bolzano winery is one of its finest interpreters. After harvest, the select grapes are subjected to natural air-drying, which concentrates their flavours and intensifies their sweetness. Temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel and patient bottle ageing preserve the delicate fullness of flavour.

The grapes for this exceptional dessert wine are harvested at the end of November at the earliest, when the night temperatures fall below zero degrees and a late harvest of the noble rotten fruit is possible in correspondingly high quality. Straw yellow in colour with golden reflections. Opulent bouquet of peach, melon, redcurrant and tropical fruit with the elegance that comes from the noble rot of the very late harvested grapes. The flavour is fresh, full-bodied, highly aromatic and with a well-balanced sweetness. An excellent meditation wine or also ideal with spicy blue cheese, foie gras terrine or dry desserts. SUPERIORE.DE

When Roberto Anselmi talks about his sweet wines, his eyes light up in a different way. Here, the rebel suddenly becomes a traditionalist – for I Capitelli embodies the centuries-old Venetian art of crafting golden nectar from dried grapes. Yet whilst others seek at least DOC status for their Recioto di Soave, Roberto once again breaks all the rules: his Passito is simply a "Vino Bianco" – a table wine. The most radical form of protest.

Castellares dessert wine matures for five long years in chestnut wood caratelli, with just 3,500 bottles going on sale each year. Deep honey yellow in colour. The bouquet is reminiscent of wild porcini mushrooms, candied fruit with honey and caramel. Seductive and soft on the palate, the well-developed acidity not only ensures a wonderfully fresh drinking flow, but also gives this fine wine a great future. SUPERIORE.DE

When the first snow powders the peaks and most winegrowers have long since closed their cellars, the real work begins on Mount Roen. At the end of November, sometimes not until the beginning of December, grapes are still hanging on the vines here – golden-brown, raisined, concentrated to the essence. Every year it is a new bet with the weather, a calculated risk that the Tramin winery has been taking for decades. Because what matures here on the eastern and south-eastern slopes above Söll at an altitude of 300 to 500 metres is no ordinary sweet wine. The 15 to 25-year-old vines are deeply rooted in calcareous gravel and loamy soil, interspersed with porphyry rock. The extreme climate – mediterranean-sunny days, followed by icy downdraughts from the Dolomites – forces the grapes to concentrate, squeezing everything they have to give. The yield? A meagre 25 hectolitres per hectare. Luxury in liquid form. harvest is followed by careful maceration, then gentle pressing at just 1.2 bar. The must matures in barriques for a whole year before being left to rest in the bottle for a further few months.

Ben Ryé – Donnafugata's great, naturally sweet and world-famous white wine. The grape harvest begins in mid-August, and the grapes are left to dry naturally for 20 to 30 days. In September, the later-ripening grapes are harvested and processed whilst still fresh. The hand-picked, raisin-like berries are added to the must in several stages during fermentation. Pale orange-yellow in colour. Overwhelming aromas of apricot, peach and orange peel. On the palate, creamy notes of passion fruit and peach with impressive elegance and length. For us, one of Italy's finest sweet wines every year! SUPERIORE.DE

The name embodies three thousand years of history: the Etruscans called this land "Fèlsina", long before it was known as Tuscany. When the shipowner Domenico Poggiali acquired the estate in Castelnuovo Berardenga in 1966, it was known primarily for its olive oil – there were just two and a half hectares of vines on the 400-hectare estate. The Vin Santo embodies the estate’s philosophy: respect for tradition, but no fear of the unconventional. Unlike most producers, Felsina uses not only Trebbiano and Malvasia, but also adds a proportion of Sangiovese – the grape variety that has made the estate world-famous with its Rancia and Fontalloro wines. The Sangiovese lends the sweet wine structure and colour, a hint of tannin and that elegance which characterises Felsina's wines.

Less than 1,000 bottles of this Gewürztraminer Riserva are produced each year. The grapes are harvested at the end of December - just when they are finely coated with the noble fungus Botrytis cinerea. Golden, almost amber-coloured sheen, quince, dried fruit and rose petals on the nose. Concentrated on the palate, delicate honey flavour, sweet and long. SUPERIORE.DE

In the 6th century AD, Cassiodorus, minister to Theoderic, King of the Ostrogoths, wrote to the treasurer of Venetia requesting a supply of a special wine for the royal table: the Acinaticum. He described it as "of such a regal colour that one might believe purple itself had its origin in it" – a wine "so dense that it is meant to be eaten rather than drunk". This forerunner of today's Recioto was already the result of the appassimento technique that continues to characterise Valpolicella to this day. The Tedeschi family, rooted in Valpolicella since 1630, preserves this heritage at Capitel Fontana.