Dessert & Demi-Sec

When people think about sparkling wine, they typically imagine dry, crisp effervescence—and well they should. The vast majority of quality sparkling wine isn't sweet (often it's labeled brut, a term that effectively means "bone-dry"), but that small percentage of sweet sparkling wine is one of the wine world's great secrets. Typically labeled sec or demi-sec, these are dosed with just enough sugar to make them ideal partners to sweet desserts—like the extraordinary strawberry–lemon verbena napoleons, mocha-pecan roll and baby Boston cream cakes here.

Published April 2006