Sweet wines can help bring out certain flavors in your favorite dessert.
While most wine enthusiasts can pair the right meat dish with the perfect wine, choosing a wine for after dinner or for dessert can prove a little more challenging. Sweet wines are typically dessert wines, served after dinner with a light dessert or cheese platter. Sometimes, a sweet wine is all the dessert you need. Other times, your fruit-filled dessert will pair nicely with a Spanish sherry wine. According to the She Knows website, in general the sweeter your dessert is the less sweet your wine should be.
Instructions
1. Choose a port red wine. Made in Portugal, port red wines have a nutty, subtly sweet flavor that is not overpowering. According to the Drinking Port website, tawny port wine also has a zest to it, making it a desirable sweet and spicy wine that goes well with desserts such as dark chocolate, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate mousse and cheesecake.
2. Pick a light sherry wine. A fortified wine that originated in Spain, sherry ranges from very light to very dry. According to the Food Network, an oloroso or cream sherry goes well with nutty desserts such as pumpkin pie. Oloroso sherry is sherry that has been oxidized even more, giving it a richer, nuttier flavor. Cream sherry is sweetened oloroso, if you prefer more sweetness.
3. Try a muscat wine. Muscat wines have a very sweet, raisiny taste because they come from grapes typically used to make raisins. The Drinking Port website suggests pairing muscat wines with smooth chocolate desserts such as tiramisu and milk or white chocolate. Muscat wines also go well with desserts that have fruit filling, accentuating the flavor of the fruit.
4. Select an Eiswein wine. Better known in English as ice wine, this German wine is made from grapes picked in the winter, when they are frozen. The concentrated sugars in ice wine give it its natural sweetness. The fragile process of producing these wines is costly, making it one of the most expensive of the dessert wines, but also one of the most desirable. According to Food and Wine Magazine, ice wine is best paired with fruits such as apples and oranges, as well as fruit tarts such as an apple and brown butter tart.
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