Best local dessert wines for the holidays

Posted: 10:01 am, November 26, 2015 by Publisher Scott Brennan

Click here to check out our current 2016 recommendations

Sweet, sticky dessert wines can make a great accompaniment to holiday dessert selections. After tasting several Paso Robles dessert wines, these are our best recommendations. These wines would also make perfect holiday gifts from Paso Robles. Enjoy!

Top Paso Robles dessert wines

August Ridge 2008 Sollievo – $34
This merlot-based dessert wine spent six years in the barrel, creating a rich mouthfeel with flavors of dried fruit, vanilla, and a touch of smoke. It will pair well with rich desserts or simply with cheese and nuts.

Cass 2012 Syrah Dessert Wine – $44
Dark as night and sweet like a ripe plum, this wine makes for an excellent holiday dessert accompaniment. It was aged 22 months in neutral oak. It is 20.8-percent alcohol.

PasoPort Noel Portray – $45
This non-vintage wine is a special Christmas blend port labeled “Noel.” It will pair well with pumpkin pie, rum cake, or enjoy all by itself.

Robert Hall 2013 Vintage Port – $36
This is a traditional blend of four Portuguese grapes that produces the true essence of a Paso Robles port. It is fortified with brandy to perfection. It is a rich dessert all by itself.

Roxo Port Cellars 2009 Magia Preta – $39.50
This is Roxo’s flagship blend of 50-percent cab and 50-percent syrah. “Magia Preta” means black magic. The wine brings a classic Paso Robles port flavor with excellent tannins. It has flavors of tobacco leaves with a hint of cedar and dark chocolate. The Roxo tasting room also offers walnut oil tasting from Limerock Orchards.

Roxo Port Cellars 2009 Ruby Tradicional – $26
This blend of four traditional Portuguese grapes recently one a gold medal from the Sunset International Wine Competition. It offers notes of cocoa, coffee and baked berry cobbler that are woven into this balanced wine. A complex lingering finish brings cigar box spices to mind.

Victor Hugo 2013 Late Harvest Syrah – $32
This is an amazing end-of-the-day, lean back and kick your feet up type of wine. A great pairing with chocolate and basically any dessert. It has a velvety texture, deep robust color and aroma of spices, plum and blackberries. It’s perfect for the holiday season.

Vista Del Rey 2010 Barbera Dessert Wine – $25
Winemaker Dave King took a little Barbera and made a dessert wine in a port style. The result is a superb and sticky dessert wine. It tastes like dark berries, dark chocolate and spices. It is 19-percent alcohol.

Additional wine recommendations

Publisher’s note: For the second year in a row we thought it would be a great idea to recommend local wines for upcoming holiday parties and dinners. Once again, I had no idea how much participation we would receive from our local wineries. Over the last few weeks we received more than 100 entries. I was originally planning a list of 10 or so of the best wines, but after tasting and tasting and tasting, there were just too many solid, well-made wines to recommend. So we decided to break up the list of top local wines into categories. The recommended wines are in alphabetical order.

Check out our Wine Tasting Map of Paso Robles.