Technically, a bottle from Alsace that has a vendange tardive (pronounced vahn-dahnge tar-deev) designation need not be “sweet.” The words literally just mean “late harvest,” and therefore, the designation is more related to the lengthier time period before the grapes are finally picked than to the amount of sugar left in those grapes at harvest. But for all practical purposes, even if a vendange tardive wine is dry from an analytic standpoint, it will still seem sweet (or sweetish) to most consumers. Rather than try to deconstruct Alsace’s arcane wine laws (and in fairness, it’s not only Alsace that is guilty of excessive “arcania”), only the “noble” varieties (riesling, muscat, pinot gris and gewürztraminer) are permitted to use the vendange tardive designation (though sylvaner, a somewhat lesser-known grape to most consumers, may be in the process of being added to this short list, if it hasn’t been already—it’s sometimes hard to keep current on changes in the law).

While the four grapes show very different characteristics from each other, whether done in a bone-dry or unctuously sweet style, it’s fair to say that the more residual sugar in a bottle, the more closely they resemble each other. That isn’t to say that muscat will ever be much like gewürz, but the more sugar left in each, the more the primary sensation becomes one of mouth-feel rather than aromatics or flavors. Alsace’s late harvest (and sweeter) wines are unfailingly plush and eminently drinkable regardless of age (and age they do extremely well). All four will be ripe and juicy, but if there were a “plushness scale,” from less to more, the order would be riesling, muscat, pinot gris and, by a mile, gewürztraminer. Pinot gris is closer to gewürz in texture than it is to the other two. The assortment of smells and tastes associated with each grape will be the same as described in the sections on each, though the sweeter the bottle, the more honeyed and buttery those attributes will be. These wines are also well priced given their quality, and are generally a fraction of the cost of more famous wines with similar residual sugar levels (Alsace’s true “sweet” wines, those designated sélection de grains nobles, however, are generally quite expensive, and certainly worth every penny).