WINES, DESSERTS AND DESSERT WINES
Got a sweet tooth and love wine too? Enjoy the best of both worlds with this guide to pairing desserts and wine and also a few sweet dessert wines.
Wines form the perfect complement to whatever food you’re eating, be it a sharp white to cut through a fatty meal or a full-bodied red to accompany some meat. But how do wines pair with desserts? Does the taste enhance the experience? The answer is yes!
Wines are so diverse and come in a range of flavour profiles. So, finding the perfect wine to match is sure to be easy while keeping in mind the following tips and tricks.
White wine is typically refreshing, with notes of fruity flavours and a light acidic trail. This can be perfect when paired with desserts which follow similar flavours, such as a fruit tart, an orange panna cotta, or even just a fruit salad. The key to finding the right non-alcoholic wine-dessert pairing is to ensure the sweetness of the dessert is not overly brought out by the wine, while at the same time, the wine does not add notes of tartness or heavy tannins which can take away from the dessert.
A good rule of thumb is to pick a wine which is sweeter than the dessert itself, especially when it comes to refined desserts which are not overpoweringly sweet but rather have a mellow sweetness coupled with stronger tastes such as cinnamon, dark chocolate, and so on. A light bubbly prosecco would be a hit with any dessert. Champagne also works well with desserts which have vanilla, lemon or other such light fragrant flavours. So, the next time you’re having dessert, pop open a bottle of non-alcoholic bubbly and turn it into a celebration.
While white wine is a good choice with desserts, some sweets pair delightfully with mild red wines as well. Care must be taken to pick a red wine which is not high in tannins and can leave an unpleasant sour taste when combined with a dessert. An extremely mouth-filling red is most definitely not the best choice. Another type of wine which can be heartily enjoyed with a plate of sweet treats are dessert wines. Delightfully sweet, and a “dessert” in itself, a dessert wine can lift the palate at the end of any meal and leave it fresh and clean. Ice wines, Sherry and port are all wonderful options and while may be enjoyed alone as a final course, they do well when paired with cookies, cakes, mousses and more.
Here’s a brief look at desserts that pair well with two popular non-alcoholic wines, Chardonnay and Merlot..
CHARDONNAY
- A light and airy orange soufflé alternating with sips of premium non-alcoholic Chardonnay is a truly heavenly combination.
- Wow your taste buds with Chardonnay paired with rice pudding. The thick sticky sweetness of rice pudding is perfectly matched by the light fresh white wine.
For a simple dessert to go with a bottle of iced Chardonnay, whip up a batch of delectable cupcakes topped with whipped cream and fruit. Soooo good!
For a simple dessert to go with a bottle of iced Chardonnay, whip up a batch of delectable cupcakes topped with whipped cream and fruit. Soooo good!
MERLOT
- Non-alcoholic Merlot meets its match in luscious chocolate cake. Rich, dark, deep and velvety can be used to describe the wine and the cake.
- Dark chocolate tarts go beautifully with Merlot. The slight bitterness of the chocolate and the wine complement each other with every bite and sip.
- For a classy dessert, go for raspberry macarons, tangy and creamy, these cut through the rich Merlot with ease, tingling the palate.
Make dessert course interesting with these delicious combinations of desserts and non-alcoholic wines. Whatever the sweet, there’s a wine to go with it.
One last tip: Match the colour of the dessert with the colour of the wine, thank us later.