Must-Try Wine Pairings For Classic Desserts

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Must-Try Wine & Dessert Pairings

7 Golden Rules to Pair Wine With Dessert

When you’re on the hunt for that perfect pudding-wine match, keep these guidelines in mind:

1. Complement flavours – Match the wine’s notes to your pudding’s flavours. Got a fruity dessert? A wine with similar fruity undertones is a win. A lemon tart, for instance, works wonders with a wine with zesty hints.

2. Sync sweetness – Your wine should be as sweet as – or even a touch sweeter – than your dessert. Think a melt-in-the-middle chocolate pud with a lush late-harvest Riesling or a Port. If the dessert out-sweets the wine, the wine may taste flat.

3. Contrast intensity – With a rich and intense pudding, pick a highly acidic wine to help cut through the sweetness and provide a refreshing contrast. Opt for a sweet Riesling alongside a slice of traditional apple pie or sparkling wine with a plate of fresh fruit.

4. Consider textures – Look for a wine with a texture that enhances your pudding. A creamy dessert, such as a cheesecake or custard tart, might pair better with a wine with a velvety mouthfeel, while a dessert with some crunch could be matched with a sparkling wine.

5. Temperature matching – Serve wines and desserts at the appropriate temperatures. Cold desserts might be best with chilled dessert wines, whereas warm or hot pudding can be served with room-temperature or slightly chilled wines.

6. "What grows together goes together" – Pairing desserts with wines from the same region is often a great idea, with each historically being made to complement the other. For example, an Italian tiramisu pairs well with Italian dessert wines such as Vin Santo.

7. Don’t overwhelm – Steer clear of very tannic reds, as they have a tendency to pick a flavour fight with puddings and desserts. And super-sweet wines? They risk overshadowing a subtle pudding, so it is best not to mix and match these.

Chocolatey Desserts

Dark chocolate torte

Rich chocolate desserts such as chocolate torte need an equally rich wine – ideally, one with plenty of body and fruit flavours to avoid either being overpowered.

Some chocolate fans enjoy it paired with a rich, full-bodied red wine, and you'd be hard-pushed to beat The Black Stump. This big, full-flavoured Aussie red is packed with super-ripe black fruit – and will easily match the intensity of the richest chocolate pudding.

Chocolate mousse

Decadence in a bowl, chocolate mousse’s deep flavours need a wine that can stand up to that intensity but also complement the mousse’s light, airy texture. A Spanish Moscatel offers the perfect solution.

Or, for something completely different, try L’Occhiolino, a unique sparkling Italian red wine with delicate bubbles and juicy red berry notes.

Fruity desserts

Apple pie

An autumnal favourite, an apple pie combines a delicious blend of stewed apples and sweet spices encased in a buttery, crumbly pastry. An Alsace Gewurztraminer (like our Edouard Leiber Gewurztraminer Réserve) has the same blend of spice aromas and a crisp finish, making it our top choice for this wine and dessert pairing.

Pavlova

Fruity meringue desserts like Pavlova need an equally fresh and fruity wine pairing. If you like, you can match your pavlova fruit of choice with your wine’s flavour. For example, an orange and passion fruit pavlova with a glass of sweet Orange Muscat.

Or if you’ve used strawberries, opt for a sweeter-style rosé like a refreshing Californian White Zinfandel.

Lemon Tart

Lemon tart is not the easiest to pair with wine - not only do you need to match the sweetness, but also the tangy citrus flavours. What you’re looking for is a pudding wine that also has crisp, fresh acidity.

This is where Riesling comes into its own. Look out for a Late Harvest Riesling, like a German Beerenauslese.

Christmas pudding

Love it or loathe it, Christmas pud is a traditional part of the Christmas Day menu. It's sweet, rich and full of fruity, boozy flavours that call for some careful pairing. Your go-to wine here is a fortified wine such as a Port or a Pedro Ximinéz Sherry.

If you opt for Port, choose a nutty Tawny like Andresen Royal Choice 20-Year-Old Tawny Port – one of the best wines for Christmas pudding to try this year.

Creamy desserts

Créme Brûlée

One French classic deserves another and there’s no finer match for Créme Brûlée than Sauternes. Enjoy with a glass of L’Epiphanie de Sauternes (from one of Bordeaux’s prestigious First Growth châteaux) and you’ll soon discover why it’s such a classic pairing.

Or try the NEW Brûlée Buttery Chardonnay - a stonking new addition to the Laithwaites range, described as “luscious and butterscotchy, like a crème brûlée in your glass but with a lightning bolt of freshness on every sip”.

Cheesecake

This is one where you need to keep in mind the topping. If it’s a fruity cheesecake, go with a fresh, sweet German Riesling. With a chocolate cheesecake, opt for a rich yet fruity Ruby Port. Match an Italian-style ricotta cheesecake with Moscato d’Asti.