I’m not normally one who enjoys sweet wines. However, when the snow is falling and friends and family are sitting around the fire, there is nothing quite as good as a nice dessert wine to finish off a great evening.

Ports are a Portuguese sweet red wine fortified by mixing in a portion of brandy with the wine to stop fermentation and bring the alcohol level up, while keeping the sugar levels high. Ports do range in sweetness from very sweet to dry, however most found in the United States are sweet. Tawny ports are long-barrel aged and tend to be a little browner in color rather than a bright red. They are also a bit dryer in character.

Imported ports I enjoy are Grahams or Fonesca. Fonesca is a bit more readily available and affordable. However, I highly recommend Grahams Six Grapes if you want to try something truly top shelf. Some excellent ports from around this region are Terra Blanca’s Forte, Barnard Griffin’s Syrah Port, and the Canoe Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Port. All are fantastic and also reasonably priced.

Another favorite dessert wine for this time of year is an ice wine. Ice wine is a very carefully hand-crafted wine created by removing white wine grapes at just the right moment after naturally freezing on the vine. I warn you up front that ice wines are not cheap. An inexpensively priced ice wine will run you around $50 for a 375 ml. bottle. The nice thing is a little drop will create the mouth-filling flavor you need. A great ice wine from this region is made by Kiona. It is also very reasonably priced in the local shops in Eastern Oregon.

For a cheaper alternative to ice wine, i suggest buying wines called “late harvest”. Late harvest wines are created by the winemaker rather than by the climate through a process of picking the grapes late in the season and then quick-freezing them just prior to juicing. You can find many local “late harvest” dessert wines from around the region on store shelves. They come in 375 mL 500 mL and 750 mL sizes in most of the stores, restaurants, and bottle shops in our area.

In the spirit of Hanukkah I suggest serving Mead during this season. Mead is a very interesting sweet wine created by fermenting honey. There are a few Meads made in Oregon. One of the most popular is made by Honeywood Winery.

One final dessert wine I want to mention is cream sherry. Yes, I said cream sherry. It is one of the new vogue dessert wines coming on the scene again years after our grandmothers and great grandmothers used to sit with a glass to calm their nerves years ago. It is readily available on the supermarket shelves for a very inexpensive price. Recently I tasted a fantastic cream sherry from Prosser. Hinzerling Winery produces a handcrafted cream sherry that is very notable. It is full of flavors of hazelnut with a spicy, warm finish that will perfect your evening.

Have a great Christmas and drink a glass for me!

Rich Breshears, the East Oregonian’s wine columnist, is a commercial photographer and marketing consultant for the wine industry in Oregon and Washington. He lives with his family in Kennewick, Wash.