Dessert wine, dessert wine, passito

It often happens that we put care and passion into looking for the right combinations between the dishes on our menu and the wines, perhaps for a special lunch with friends or work colleagues, and then we forget to think about &' pairing with dessert, the final course. In reality, dessert is a dish that has the same value as all the others and deserves equal attention when choosing the wine (liqueur, sweet, sparkling wine...) to combine with it.

Sparkling wine, dessert wine?

Meanwhile, let's debunk the myth that desserts go well with dry sparkling wines, not c&' it's nothing more wrong: the basic principle of &' pairing wines with desserts says that a dessert must always be combined with a sweet wine.

A food-wine combination is certainly not easy to make: it is a combination of technical knowledge (of the characteristics of the dishes and the properties of the wine but also of the classic methods of pairing) and creativity. The operation is not simply intended to find a wine that “goes well” with the dish but to blend the two elements harmoniously and create a new taste sensation.

The combinations take place by contrast or by analogy. The latter are easier to do, while the contrast requires a &' careful evaluation of both the food and the wine, and of the effects that the components of the wine cause when they encounter the food. The varieties of desserts and wines are endless and so are the related combinations. The desserts differ in the type of dough used (leavened or unleavened), the type of cooking (baked, fried) or not cooked and the fillings (creams, fresh or dried fruit, candied fruits, spices...

).

Dessert wine: which one to choose

To choose the wine to accompany the dessert, you must always follow the criterion of &' analogy. Here is a list of combinations that we propose: leavened desserts (panettone, pandoro, brioche, pasta in Savarin, Babà, sponge cake) with sweet, soft, fresh, low-alcohol sparkling wines with an intense aroma; desserts fried with sweet white wine, very fragrant with a rich and soft flavor; dry desserts stuffed with dried or candied fruit to accompany with liqueur white wines or alcoholic and very fragrant passita; dry desserts filled with jam or cream to accompany medium-soft and soft wines sweets; dry desserts filled with fresh fruit to be accompanied with white wines, sweet, warm, and with an intense aroma; dry desserts filled with red fruits to accompany red wines, sweet and very fragrant; dry desserts stuffed with strawberries or white fruits to accompany with medium-effervescent and fragrant sweet wines; almond paste with very warm and well-structured dried wines; cupcakes stuffed with chocolate to accompany with flavored red wines and alcohol; beignè filled with cream to accompany with very sweet, fragrant and warm wines; the small pastry stuffed with fruit or cream to be accompanied with very sweet, fragrant wines; the Soufflés filled with lemon, chocolate, vanilla, candied fruit or liqueurs are to be accompanied with a liqueur wine; the Crépe with sweet wines, not very fragrant and moderately hot; the spoon desserts (such as caramel cream, crème brulée, Catalan cream, Bavarian cream) are to be accompanied with fresh, sapid and well-structured white wines; on the other hand, they cannot be accompanied with any wine

.