Sweet Wine Pairing

Last night I gave a live virtual session on sweet and fortified wines: what they are and how they are made. We had some questions around food pairings relative to sweet & fortified wines so I wanted to share my thoughts with you here. If you'd like to attend any future sessions, please follow me on Instagram! 

General Guidelines for Pairing 

When it comes to pairing wine with food you have to consider that the food has more effect on the wine than the reverse. Next when we're talking about sweet wines, it's worth mentioning another rule of thumb: your wine should be at least as sweet as your food. Sweet foods make the wines seem less sweet and fruity, more tannic and harsh and acidic. Hence pair a dessert with a sweeter wine. Again though, the reverse is not true! You can have a savory dish with your sweet wine, but I would advise against a savory wine with a sweet dish. 

Savory Dishes with Sweet Wines

Now please consider these other pairing suggestions for your savory dishes... 

1. SPICY foods intensify the burning sensation of alcohol so spicy dishes are really nice with low alcohol sweet wines. Think spicy pad thai with a sweet riesling or ice wine. A dry red will be painful. 
2. UMAMI foods make wines seem more bitter, acidic, tannic and less fruity. Hence I love a sweet ruby port with sautéed mushrooms and steak. Or a Chinese dish in a brown (soy sauce based) sauce with a red ice wine or tawny port. 
3. SALTY and ACIDIC foods do pair well with many wines as wines generally seem sweeter, fruitier and less dry when enjoyed with salty or acidic foods. For that reason I'd go with a wine as intensely acidic (or not) as the food so neither makes the other seem "flabby". I think salt & vinegar potato chips with a dry sherry could work really well. My mouth is watering already and I don't even like dry sherry (yet).
4. FATTY & OILY foods make wine seem less acidic so I love love love fatty fried foods with a dry acidic sparkling wine like champagne (albeit not a sweet wine). Another great options is an Asti or Prosecco with a bit more sweetness to it. I would avoid less acidic wines (like aged wines) with fatty foods though as the wines will fall flat on the palate with the fried foods. For the sweet wine category I think ice wine or late harvest Gewurztraminer would be nice. Blue cheese in the dish - try a Sauternes. 

Someone asked what would go well with a BBQ chicken and Mac N' Cheese dinner. For just the Mac n' Cheese, I'd be all over the sparkling wine, but for the combo you want something that is tart enough to work with the cheesy goo but yet will also have some sweetness and acid to hold up to the BBQ sauce. I'd go sweeter Riesling or Gewurztraminer FTW! 

Challenge

The great thing about sweet wines are that they can pair so well with foods that typically aren't easy to pair like Umami and Spicy foods. Try drinking more sweet wines with your dinners and see what I mean. Happy pairing!  =)