“There is always room for dessert”.
Properly pairing desserts with the correct dessert wine, can highly upgrade your oenogastronomic experience, offering intensely aromatic, honeyed, concentrated flavours that are perfect for slowly completing a meal, or on some occasions, accompanying us through some savoury delicacies as well.
Basic guidelines to follow, when pairing dessert wines:
- Choose a wine that’s at least as sweet as the food you are pairing it with—this will allow the wine to stand out and not be overpowered by a luscious dessert
- Pair desserts and foods based on their characteristics e.g. fruity, nutty, creamy
- A fruity strawberry tart should be treated differently to gooey fudge brownies – intensity of the flavour, has a vital importance
- Acidity – berries have more natural acidity than creamy desserts, whereas, creamy desserts are fatty and they balance very well with high acidic wines.
Examples of great dessert wine pairings:
Port – fortified wine:
An exceptional fortified wine, that has been around for centuries and comes from Portugal’s Douro Valley. An ideal choice for an after-dinner drink.
Ruby port, which has a deep burgundy colour, a complex sweetness, is usually fruitier, with hints of berries and a subtle note of nuts. It is great for chocolate and coffee flavoured desserts, such as tiramisu.
Tawny port has a golden colour with a warm, rich flavour – sweet, with wonderful caramel and spice flavours that perfectly complement warm-spiced desserts. It pairs well with cinnamon spiced apple pies and pumpkin tarts and caramel sauces.
Tawny port is also a great pair with dried fruits, like apricot and prunes, as well as nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts).
Sauternes:
One of the greatest bordelaise wines, luscious and acidic which can be described as pure elegance!
Ever wondered what to pair with your Crème Brûlée? Sauternes should be the answer! It greatly compliments custard and vanilla based creamy desserts. These type of desserts tend to be quite rich and high in fat. A wine like Sauternes has the superpower to cut through the intense cream and enhance notes of sweetness and vanilla in both the dessert and the wine.
It is also a great wine to pair with savoury, rich, creamy, blue cheeses and foie gras where again, its sweetness and acidity, are vital factors that result in mind-blowing food and wine combinations. It is also a typical French go-to strategy, and when it comes to gastronomy, we surely can trust them!
Tokaji
The king of wines, or also known as the wine for kings!
A Hungarian beauty, from the Tokaji (pronounced “toe-KAI”) region, with a stunning, deep gold colour and concentrated, sweet flavour, admired for its honeyed quality.
Again, an amazing wine to pair with rich cheeses like Camembert, Gorgonzola, and Roquefort. When it comes to foie gras, pairing it with Tokaji, it is surely one of the most enjoyable guilty pleasures you can experience.
The wine itself, is super-concentrated, with that signature nectar-like flavour. Again, it is a wine paired well with creamy, intense chocolate desserts and dry fruits like apricots and walnuts.
Moscato d’Asti
Italian style suited well with fruit-based desserts. Semi-sparking with a subtle sweetness, its highly aromatic character compliments flavours like banana, mango, apples and pears, which balances perfectly with an apple pie.
Knowing how to pair dessert wines will open up a window to new experiences since if successful, these pairings are an excellent way to take your dessert to the next level and enjoy them even better together than on their own.
So, try to experiment with your choice of pairing. Pair the wines you love with desserts you have a soft spot for. Aim for flavours that balance each other and the result will be just perfect!
See you next week!
Cheers, Santé and Yiamas…
Until then.. Strike for a glass half full !
Nicole x
