The winery’s philosophy is, if you’re going to make a dessert wine, why not make it fabulously sweet instead of boringly off-dry? With 17.5% residual sugar, this indeed hits the limit of the sweetness scale. Yet it’s superbly balanced with acidity, giving a refreshing balance to the intense apricot jam, lemon drop, candied ginger, pineapple creme brulee and vanilla custard flavors. A tremendous success for a California dessert wine.——S.H.(2/1/2010)—— 96