I have a sweet tooth and I'm new to wines. I have tasted dry wines and I am totally not feeling them. I know I would enjoy something sweet. Many people suggest dessert wines, but those are tooo sweet. Are there any other sweet wines that I could try beside dessert wines?

--Rose N. Kinyua, Dallas

Instead of sweet, think fruity. In reds, try Beaujolais. It's not sweet, but it's so fruity that people who have a sweet tooth often like it. Get the 2007 Beaujolais-Villages (until the 2008 is available) and see what you think. Also, try a German Riesling-any German Riesling called 'Riesling Kabinett' might do it for you. And while you won't see Gewürztraminer everywhere (it's a peppery white that is often a bit sweet and always delightful), keep your eyes peeled for that. You might also want to do yourself a favor and try an inexpensive bottle of bubbly like soft Prosecco from Italy, which is pleasant and oh so easy to drink. Or grab a floral and fruity Torrontés, the popular white wine of Argentina. It often has hints of honey, apples, peaches and pears. More generally, we can't stress enough the benefits of finding a merchant whom you trust to identify just what kinds of wines you like.

We are going away soon on our annual four-week hiatus-no, it's not a vacation because we'll spend the whole month hectoring the girls about preparing for their return to college-but before we went we wanted to leave you with this one word: Chablis. Truly, if you have not yet enjoyed a bottle of Chablis with seafood this summer, what are you waiting for?

Chablis-the real thing, from France-is made from the Chardonnay grape in a smallish area in northern Burgundy. The geography is important because the grapes that grow out of that mineral-rich soil are left with abundant acidity and a focused purity. We love it with seafood. So the other night, when Dottie made lightly fried oysters and shrimp for dinner, John decided to visit a little suburban wine store, looking for a bottle of wine for dinner.

His first choice was Chablis and the name he planned to look for was William Fevre. While Fevre may not be the best winemaker in all of Chablis or even our very favorite in all of our tastings, what we know about Fevre wines is that they are relatively widely available, consistently good and well-priced. Plus, they always do well in our tastings. While there are various levels of Chablis, including Grand Cru, John was more interested in basic Chablis, which is a better buy. We have not found the usually much-higher prices for the fancier bottlings to be great values. Finally, John didn't consult a vintage chart before he looked and didn't really care. Young Chablis is delightful; older Chablis has a special depth, and because this store takes good care of its inventory, older would be fine.

The store is small, but the selection is well-chosen and broad-it seems to have one or two of just about everything. And, sure enough, there was William Fevre 'Champs Royaux' 2007, for $27. He picked it up. We chilled it and served it with dinner. The wine itself was beautiful-ripe and intense, with good minerals and a lime kick at the end with a kind of vague little cloud of burnt sugar that reminded us of crème brûlée. It was dry, with a beautiful fruit-oak balance that made it wonderfully complete. We enjoy all kinds of pairings and we experiment with them all the time, but few pairings in the world are as utterly seamless as a good Chablis and good seafood. When paired with plump, creamy oysters in a slightly salty crunchy coating and dense, salty and sweet shrimp, the flinty acidity of the Chablis was little short of magical.

DOROTHY J. GAITER / BRECHER

• stress [stres] n.强调；压力 vt.强调 (初中英语单词)
• identify [ai´dentifai] vt.认出；鉴定；验明 (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
• vacation [və´keiʃən, vei´keiʃən] n.假期；休庭期；腾空 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• abundant [ə´bʌndənt] a.丰富的；充分的 (初中英语单词)
• purity [´pjuəriti] n.纯净；贞洁 (初中英语单词)
• lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
• available [ə´veiləbəl] a.可用的；有效的 (初中英语单词)
• consult [kən´sʌlt] v.商量；磋商；请教 (初中英语单词)
• delightful [di´laitful] a.讨人喜欢的 (初中英语单词)
• slightly [´slaitli] ad.轻微地；细长的 (初中英语单词)
• dessert [di´zə:t] n.(餐后)甜食 (高中英语单词)
• finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
• geography [dʒi´ɔgrəfi] n.地理(学) (高中英语单词)
• decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
• relatively [´relətivli] ad.比较地；相对地 (高中英语单词)
• selection [si´lekʃən] n.选择；选拔；精选物 (高中英语单词)
• intense [in´tens] a.强烈的；紧张的 (高中英语单词)
• totally [´təutəli] ad.统统，完全 (英语四级单词)
• argentina [,ɑ:dʒən´ti:nə] n.阿根廷 (英语四级单词)
• wonderfully [´wʌndəfuli] ad.令人惊讶地；奇妙地 (英语四级单词)
• inexpensive [,inik´spensiv] a.廉价的 (英语六级单词)
• suburban [sə´bə:bən] a.郊区的 n.郊区居民 (英语六级单词)
• consistently [kən´sistəntli] ad.一致地；始终如一地 (英语六级单词)
• creamy [´kri:mi] a.含奶油的；米色的 (英语六级单词)