Complete Your Meal With The Perfect Dessert Wine

Desserts have been around since the beginning of time. Before the advent of the commercialized sweet, dessert partakers indulged in raw honeycomb and dried fruits and nuts. During the Middle Ages, sugar was manufactured. Wealthy cooks, as well as the royal cooks, began preparing sweet treats for the ending of the meal. Also called “afters” or “sweets,” dessert is enhanced with the perfect dessert wine. In some instances, the ideal dessert wine can become the dessert itself.

Types of Dessert Wines

Choosing between wines is confusing. There are many types of wines available on the market. Those who are not yet wine connoisseurs may stick with the rule of thumb advising white wine for fish and poultry and red wine for beef. However, where does the dessert wine fall? Dessert wines are commonly sweet. They are designed to enhance the flavor of pastries, fruits, or puddings. Common choices include:

• Tawny Ports
• Moscatos
• Rieslings
• Pinot Gris

Perhaps one of the more sought after dessert wines is the German Ice Wine or Eiswine. Procured from grapes that are allowed to freeze on the vine, Ice Wine is the sweetest of the wines. The freezing of the grape causes the water to freeze and separate from the sugars, instilling a more significant concentration of sweetness within the body of the wine.

Popular Pairings

Three things to consider when choosing a dessert wine are:

1. The acidity of the wine. Generally, more acidic wines do well when paired with fruits. Fruits contain their natural acidity, and the two acids play well off one another.

2. The intensity of the wine. The more intense the wine, the sweeter the dessert should be. A sharply sweet wine can overpower a mild dessert.

3. The sweetness of the wine. A dessert wine should always be more delicious than the actual dessert. The more delicious wines can stand alone as a dessert.

Three major categories of desserts are usually considered when choosing a dessert wine to pair.

1. Puddings and vanilla, such as an egg custard. Both the wine and the dessert should contain notes of butter and should be mild on the palate. Wise choices are Rieslings and sparkling Asti Spumante.

2. Spices and fruits, such as those found in a fruit cake. Gewirtztraminers and Sauternes, as well as champagnes, pair well. Both dessert and wine should contain undertones of cinnamon, as well as pears and apples.

3. Chocolate and caramels, such as those found in bon-bons and other similar sweets. Dessert and wine should both be rich and buttery. Suggested wines are red wines such as Australian Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Grappa, and Banyuls. A tawny port also goes well with a chocolate dessert.

Wine aficionados suggest pairing wine with desserts following the adage, “the darker the dessert, the darker the wine.”

Remember, the best way to complete a meal with the perfect dessert wine is to find the proper balance between the sweetness of the wine and the palate.