There are a couple of words that reviewers rarely use when describing a wine if they want many people to try it: "acidity" and "sweet."
For many people, "acidity" conjures up wines that are rough and sour, mouth-puckering wines that lack flavour, unless you like the flavour you get when you bite into a lemon. In fact, acidity is absolutely essential to wine (as it is to any sweet fruit, like peaches and plums), and what you should look for is acidity that's balanced with the other components, like fruit and tannins.
Wine that's short in the acid department is often described as "flabby," and flabby wines just don't feel very good in your mouth. They tend to be heavy and flat because they lack the lightness and refreshing quality that acid provides. In many warm wine regions, in fact, where grapes don't gain enough acidity naturally (often the case in Australia), acid is added during the winemaking process.
Finally, although some wines can have too high a level of acidity -- too high because it's out of whack with the other components -- higher-acid wines tend to be better partners with food. Low-acid wines just don't refresh your palate as effectively and, with food, they tend to leave you with a fairly drab, heavy eating experience.
But despite all this, we reviewers shy away from referring directly to acid and use words like "crisp," "brisk," "zesty" and "refreshing" instead.
The other word that frightens consumers is "sweet." Again, it conjures up memories of frightful wine, like the sugared-up concoctions that passed for wine in the bad old days of winemaking in Ontario, New Zealand (how well I remember the tooth-hurting stuff from there in the 1960s!), and so many other regions.
It's a cliche among wine professionals that most people "talk dry and drink sweet." That is, most wine drinkers say they like dry wines, but the most popular wines either have some residual sugar (which means they're not totally dry) or have such fruitiness that they're perceived as sweet.
In fact, "sweet" in the world of wine covers a huge spectrum, from a little sweeter than off-dry to the ultra-sweetness of icewine. And that's a problem, because not everyone likes the very sweet stuff.
For example, icewine is a hard sell not because of its price but because very few people like that degree of sweetness very often.
I frequently offer a glass of icewine at the end of a dinner party but I haven't had a taker in years. Partly that's because it's so sweet, it ruins your palate for anything afterwards. I swear, asking guests, "Anyone like an icewine?" is tantamount to asking, "Can I call anyone a cab?"
It's too bad there's a bias against sweet wines because many are rich, sweet and luscious, but not very sweet at all. A few from the south of France came into the LCBO lately, and they're worth having a look at: sweet wines that go well with fruit-based desserts, cheeses and the like. They're sweet wines you and your guests will enjoy with food. And they have great balancing acidity, too.
Four sweet wines from the south of France today. Check the LCBO website lcbo.com for stores with stocks, because they're in limited supply.