Over the past decade, dessert wines have gone from gimmick to mainstream, complete with a big section at your local liquor store. Fruit wines, likewise, have become less than a novelty, in part due to the big success of Bonny Dune's framboise (which essentially spiked raspberries and put them in a bottle -- it's that dang good). In Hawaii, the Volcano Winery (which bills itself as the southernmost winery in the United States) makes a very nice after-dinner wine from macadamia nut tree honey. The bees chow down on mac nut pollen and the vintners at the winery faithfully reproduce the honey highlights.

The legs on this libation are quite long and the flavor has a bit of vanilla buried somewhere. This wine might be too sweet even for some dessert wine fiends, but for me it works quite well with vanilla ice cream (preferably Dave's, Roselani or Lappert's, among others). You can also drink it with non-sweet deserts -- like a nice fruit tart made, perhaps, with Maui raspberries, if you can find them!. The price is quite nice -- its always less than $20 per bottle. Don't expect something on par with a great botrytis or ice wine. But its totally drinkable and fun. The winery does not offer tours but you can drop into their tasting room seven days a week. A visit there is a good pairing with a day or two at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is only 15-minutes or so away from the winer. You can also buy their honey wine all over Hawaii. Alas, this bottle is not sold on the Mainland so stock up.

Volcano Winery
(808) 967-7772

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—Alex, 11/26/06