Greg, Jeff, Andrew, Christine, Matthew, Sunny, and Peter
Only the wines 1-4 were ranked and the decided order was 2, 3, 1, and then 4 for those who want to skip the ahead past the detailed descriptions below.
#1: 3rd place among group. Some felt that it was sharp and "off" as many fruity tastes collided in the glass \u2013 peach, passion fruit, grapefruit, citrus, and even licorice. Balance and texture were generally both considered good, but it was overall too sugary.
#2: 1st place of the group. Everyone enjoyed the subtleties of this refined and more distinctive dessert wine. P & B both noticed its woodsy and flowery notes and thought that it may have been a botrytis produced wine. C noted that it paired very well with fatty patê and A enjoyed the hints of Concord grape flavorings, somewhat rare for a white dessert wine. M noted fig essence and a forward palate taste target. S noted that it was more like a white wine that happened to be sweet. Overall, very enjoyable!
#3: 2nd place among the group. P and C noted that this wine paired well with fatty foods to off-set the intensity of the wine. C called it grassy, complex, and interesting. G said that it "jumped out of the glass" with its nutty and floral tones. M found it a tad dusty and short-lived on the palate as well as difficult to pair. S enjoyed it with goat cheese.
#4: 4th place among the group. C & S found this wine to be unremarkable with less depth. A likened it to grain alcohol (gasp!) while P found it much better taken with food than solo. Only G noted distinct flavors of fruit and citrus in the bitter, but weak taste.
As mentioned earlier, the last two bottles were not dessert wines and were not ranked with the rest of the group. They were our wildcard wines and were enjoyable enough as such.