Blog

What kind of wine can you serve next to a fruit dessert?

As if planning the Holiday menu wasn't difficult enough, it all gets complicated when you have to think about drinks. What do you offer your guests when you serve a fruit dessert like a berry pavlova, a caramelized plum tart, or a strawberry shortcake?

A fruit dessert can prove to be a big challenge when making your drinks list. Sweet and full of strong and acidic flavors, the dessert containing fruits (especially forest fruits) tends to grab all the attention on itself, making the taste buds unable to "focus" on anything else. However, the wine needs a little more "attention"...

Of course, when you set the menu, you aim to be crowned "hostess of the year", choosing more and more sophisticated dessert recipes. But this title can come back to you without complicating yourself, by choosing wisely. For example, a fruit dessert, which you can intelligently pair with the right wine.

It might seem natural to choose a dry or at most demi-dry wine when it comes to the right drinks to serve with dessert, but one of the basic rules, which only the experts know, is that "the wine should be sweeter than the dessert" (or rather, the dessert should ideally not be too sweet), says Food&Wine, citing "Wine Style: Discover the Wines You Will Love Through 50 Simple Recipes," the latest book by dishes by American wine expert Kate Leahy. In the book, she proposes a number of recipes designed to pair with wine, devoting an entire chapter to desserts and dessert wines. The author notes that there are wines that are special for this stage of the meal, giving as an example light, low-alcohol sparkling wines that can "invigorate the taste buds and refresh the palate for dessert."

So, if you haven't chosen the dishes for dessert yet, you can freely take inspiration from the 50 ideas in Leahy's book, in which you will also find a surprising recipe for Foccacia with plums and rosemary, perfect with a Riesling with hints of apricot.

But what can you serve next to a Pavlova, the divine dessert with fine meringue, plenty of whipped cream and fresh and tart berries? Also try a sparkling wine, slightly fruity, a mouthful of energy, acidity and freshness.

Tarts and fruit tarts, also very popular during the holidays, go with most sparkling wines or prosecco, and if some chocolate is also included in the scheme, you can easily turn to red wines (if chocolate dominates, you can even choose a Pinot Noir).

Of course, if your menu is quite full and you feel that dessert "doesn't fit in", you can serve only fresh fruit and sparkling wine, a combination as simple as it is well received. Forest fruits and pomegranates, for example, pair well with sparkling and sweet Muscat wines, while very dry wines such as Sauvignon Blanc pair well with sweet fruits such as bananas, grapes or dried fruit.