Saint Croix Vineyard Raspberry Infusion

The back label:
"This award winning wine is a decant dessert experience which captures the essence of fresh raspberries.  It is the perfect complement for many desserts, especially chocolate or cheesecake."  It is 75% raspberry wine with grape neutral spirits & 25% red wine.

A beautiful dark pink/purple rich in raspberry both flavor and aroma.  This dessert wine does not taste like it contains 17.5% alcohol by volume.  I drank it chillled which made it seem very sweet, but as it warmed up to room temperature the dryness increased slightly and raspberry was less intense.  Just as sugguested, I paired the raspberry wine with chocolate, a chocolate brownie.  Wow, that was sooooo delicious!  Reminded me of a raspberry truffle.  If you were looking for an introductory dessert wine, this would be a great one.

I purchased this wine from the Saint Croix Vineyard in Stillwater, MN while on a field trip a year ago in my Wines and Vines course at the U of MN.  The 350 ml bottle went for about $17 if I remember correctly, which would also make it a very affordable dessert wine for any occasion.

Unfortunately the dessert wine is much too sweet for my taste, unless I eat chocolate with it.  I do understand it is supposed to be very sweet and it is a raspberry wine, but I would much rather drink a port, tawny port, or even a muscat if my budget allowed.