While we weren’t giving away Château d’Yquem, we did offer an assortment of world-class sweet wines like Château Raymond-Lafon, Château Guiraud, Moscato d’Asti, Malvasia delle Lipari, and Verduzzo di Cialla. Our most popular dessert wine was from Tuscany Vin Santo—an amber-colored Madeira-like wine into which we’d encourage guests to dunk almond biscotti. The Italian tradition of biscotto bagno (“biscuit bath”) was new to most of our guests in 1985, but it was an after-dinner delight I had enjoyed learning about while working as a tour guide in Rome back in 1978.
