Sweet wine
Many people are sniffy about sweet wines, imagining they are somehow unsopisticated. Absolute tosh.
It's true that there are artificially sweetened horrors that are to fine wine what take-away pizza is to fine dining and that no-one other than drunken teenagers and demented grannies could possibly enjoy such a tipple.
But there are other sweet wines - their sugars intensified either by late harvesting or the actions of a fungus that sucks the water out of the grapes - that are divine.
King of these, in my view, is sauternes.
Usually it's served with desserts. But I recently drank a properly chilled glass with a plate of foie gras and they worked wonderfully together - the slighly acidic, gloriously sweet and unctious wine contrasting against the savoury, buttery nature of the liver.
It would work well, too, with a slice of pungent blue cheese.
And though the best are certainly not cheap, compared to other great wines they are remarkable value.
Try a glass.
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Paul Fulford
Features Editor Paul Fulford gives his verdict on the region’s restaurants.
Well for a cheaper alternative you could try Essensia - a US Orange Muscat. Bit less than most Sauterns. You could also consider a good Port - white and tawny are usually undervalued (i.e. cheap). If you're more adventurous, some of the sweet spanish dessert sherries are worth a try, but yo ureally need a good guide for those...
It's a shame that sweet sherries are still regarded as wines for grannies - some(the wines, not the grannies) can be amazing.