I am all for hedonism, but you can have too much of a good thing, especially when it comes to sugar. “Dessert wines” come from all over the world and are made a variety of ways. The one thing they have in common is that they are all substantially sweet. The name, of course, lends one to think these wines are to be served with dessert. And while they certainly can be beautiful partners to sugary treats, I enjoy these wines most as dessert. Sweet wines are most brilliant when consumed on their own or with the contrasting flavor of salty cheese or nuts. If you are bent on serving double the dessert, just make sure the wine is always sweeter than the dish.
Madeira / mah-DEER-ah
This very special fortified wine comes from Portugal and goes through a unique heating process that renders it almost indestructible once you open it. Madeira can range from dry to very sweet. With dessert or as dessert, I recommend the sweetest style, called Malmsey. This rich wine can have sophisticated and complex flavors of brown sugar, toffee, roasted nuts, and orange peel. I like Malmsey Madeira alone, or with roasted almonds or a salty blue cheese.
Moscato d’Asti / mo-SCAH-toe dee AH-stee
Piedmont, Italy’s moscato d’Asti is clean, fresh, floral, and citrusy. It is cheap and charming. Low alcohol, fewer bubbles, and a slightly sweet taste make it refreshing and irresistible. Try it paired with biscotti, sugar cookies, melon, prosciutto, apples, pears, and not-too-sweet fruit-based desserts.
Sauternes / saw-TERN
When most people think of Bordeaux, France, they first think of the famous dry red wines of the region. But Sauternes, and its value-driven cousin Barsac, are superlative dessert wines made from grapes infected with Botrytis. Thanks to vibrant acidity, the best age gracefully for decades and taste of opulent honey and dried apricots. Try Sauternes with blue cheese, peaches, apples, apricots, butter cake, nuts, foie gras, or sugar cookies.
This rare, neglected wine was once a favorite of luminaries, including Pope Pius IV, Catherine the Great, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, and Queen Victoria. In fact, Louis XIV deemed Hungary’s Tokaji “vinum regum, rex vinoram,” the king of wines and wine of kings. Hungarians are so proud of their national treasure that it is even mentioned in the national anthem. Let me jump on the bandwagon and confirm: Tokaji Aszú is worthy of the hype. With lower alcohol (usually 10 to 11 percent) and bright, tangy acidity to balance the orange blossom, apricot, and delicate tea leaf flavors, this wine is in a category of its own. It is incredible chilled, alone or with aged Gouda, foie gras, or fruit-based desserts.
Bottle-Aged Port
One of the two main types of Port, bottle-aged Port retains its ruby red color because the majority of its aging is done in the bottle. Trademark flavors are red cherry and cocoa, so this is the type of Port to pair with chocolate. You can find simple, inexpensive versions, but the finest bottle-aged Ports are called vintage Ports. These come from a single, exceptional year, and they can be aged for decades. Because they age so well, fine vintage Ports make great gifts for momentous occasions like the birth of a child or a marriage. If you can find a vintage Port from the significant year, you’ll likely have a beautiful wine to celebrate with in twenty or thirty years’ time—if you can wait that long. Drink vintage Port with berries, cherries, chocolate, coffee- or espresso-flavored desserts, and blue cheeses.
Barrel-Aged Port
Unlike bottle-aged Ports, barrel-aged versions are aged in big oak casks and are intentionally exposed to small amounts of oxygen over time. This process turns them a deep, golden brown color, which is why these wines are also known as “tawny” Ports. There are very simple tawny Ports and much more rich, complex tawny Ports, which are expensive. Either way, barrel-aged Ports are ready to drink upon release and have amazing flavors of toffee, nuts, and caramel. Try them with baked apples, tarts, crisps, pies, nuts and nut-based desserts, cheddar cheese, caramel, and custards.
Eiswein/Ice Wine / ICE-vine/ICE-wine
Austria, Germany, and Canada are serious about ice wine. They are all legally bound to make this mind-bogglingly sweet wine in the traditional way, which includes allowing grapes to hang on the vine long after the regular harvest. Eventually, winter sets in and they freeze, at which point they are picked by hand one frozen grape at a time, and are then gently pressed to produce teeny-tiny amounts of superconcentrated liquid sugar. Ice wines are so sweet that they taste best alone or when paired with salty foods. Try them with blue cheese, shortbread, and fruit or fruit-based desserts.
Banyuls / ban-YULES
This underappreciated dessert wine from southern France is fortified like Port and made mostly from grenache grapes. It is a perfect partner for dark chocolate, with its flavors of black plum, espresso, cherry, and chocolate. Drink it with chocolate, dried fruit, blue cheese, or tiramisu.
Most sweet wines taste best with a slight chill, which minimizes the alcohol flavor. Pop dessert wines in the fridge about thirty minutes before you plan to drink them.
Buying the right amount of dessert wine is a little tricky. Some dessert wines come in traditional 750-ml bottles, some in 375-ml half-bottles, and some in a 500-ml bottle. The general rule of thumb is that you’ll need less than you think. Most dessert wines are so rich that people don’t gulp them by the glassful like a dry table wine. Buy small, pour small, and you’ll still be living large.
Wine + chocolate = heaven. Or at least, that’s what you may have been told. As someone who has extensive experience with both, I feel it’s my duty to reveal the unfortunate truth: Most chocolate and wine pairings are pretty awful. However, there are some killer combinations. Here’s what you need to know when combining two of life’s most exquisite palate pleasers.
Rules are one of my least favorite things in life, but sometimes they are necessary. Such is the case with wine and chocolate.
1. When choosing a wine to pair with chocolate, make sure the wine is very ripe and fruit-forward, leaning toward sweetness (or, in fact, sweet). The wine needs to be as sweet or sweeter than the chocolate, or the sugar in the chocolate will make the wine seem limp and acidic. Dessert wines are usually a safe bet, and for non-dessert wines, look to very sunny regions for the ripest fruit flavors; the warmest parts of California and Australia are good places to start.
2. In keeping with the previous rule, the less sweet the food (in this case, chocolate), the better chance the wine has of surviving the interaction. This is also a good general guideline for any dessert pairing, Look for high-quality chocolate with a cocoa count of 60 percent or higher.
These two notoriously hard-to-pair veggies can make wine taste funky, but good pairings exist. Dry sparkling wines are a fitting option, as are light, high-acid, lemony white wines with an herbal edge—try sauvignon blanc, grüner veltliner, albariño, or Vinho Verde. One well-known tip for making artichokes a bit more wine-friendly is cooking them in water with lemon and salt. This helps mitigate the effects of cynarin, the culprit compound that clobbers wine.
Spicy foods accentuate the alcohol and tannin in wine. If you served a big, tannic cabernet with something spicy, you’d multiply the heat and lose any chance of appreciating the wine. Instead, pair spicy food with ripe, fruity, low-alcohol wines. Off-dry riesling and gewürztraminer, with their touch of sweetness, are good bets as they tend to cool off your mouth in between bites. If you prefer red, try Beaujolais or a juicy New World pinot noir. Chilling your reds a bit before the meal will help make them even more refreshing in between bites of the spicy food.
Because fresh fruit is naturally sweet and also usually high in acidity, it can wreak havoc on wines, leaving them tasting sour and limp. I generally avoid pairing fruit with wines, but if you must, moscato d’Asti, prosecco, ice wine, and sweeter-style rieslings can do it with grace.
Some wines just seem a bit more eager to please when it comes to pairings. The following three are extremely versatile with a variety of foods; they make great choices when you have a table full of people all eating different things.
Most people don’t think of food when they think of Champagne and other dry sparkling wines, but they can be some of the most flexible wines for pairing. Sparkling wines are superb with seafood, eggs, simple chicken dishes, veggies, fried and salty foods, and even spicy foods. Don’t go pitting them against barbecue, steak, or other big, rich dishes, though; they aren’t tough enough for that.
Riesling is the sommelier’s darling for a couple of reasons: versatility and an innate ability to let the food shine. Rieslings can be bone-dry to very sweet, so knowing what you’ve got in the bottle is an important piece of information before pairing. Look for rieslings with just a touch of sweetness and the grape’s signature tangy acidity, which pair gracefully with many dishes.
Pinot noir is the go-to red for adaptability with food. Pinot has very little tannin and lower alcohol than many other reds, so it plays well with a wide variety of foods, from steaks to game to chicken to veggies and even fish.
Steer clear of wines that say “for cooking” anywhere on the label. These are nasty wines with additives like salt and food coloring. You can find inexpensive but authentic alternatives that will actually enhance your food and that you won’t mind sipping while you’re doing all that cooking.