10th December 2023 | Pairings & Recipes | 6 minute read
Christmas has its fair share of decadent puddings, chocolatey treats and delicious dessert wines. When it comes to bringing it all together and enjoying a glass of dessert wine with your favourite festive puddings, there are a few handy tips for how to nail these sweet pairings. From figgy pudding and Christmas cake to yule logs and mince pies, there’s a dessert wine to suit any sweet treat your heart desires.
Different types of dessert wine suit different puddings. A key rule when pairing wine with specific tastes is to pair sweet wine with sweet food – but the rule only works if the intensity of sweetness in each component is equal. So, think lightly sweet wines with with subtly sweet desserts, and save your sweeter wines for richer desserts.
Let’s start off with the lightest styles of dessert wine you can get. We’re talking light to medium-bodied sweet white wines that are generally quite delicate and fresh in flavour, such as Demi-Sec sparkling wines and sweet whites that are fairly acidic (so nothing too heavy or intensely sweet in this category).
These are beautiful dessert wines to enjoy on their own if you fancy a little drop of something sweet on Christmas Day afternoon, but also make a fantastic pairing with light, creamy desserts and fruity puddings. In terms of sugary snacks, these lighter styles of dessert wine are well suited to milder flavoured sweets and biscuits like fudge and shortbread.
Let’s be honest, a glass of something bubbly is welcome any time of day over Christmas! Sparkling Moscato is a great all-rounder as it’s light enough for a morning toast, an ideal aperitif to accompany party snacks and sweet nibbles, and a thirst-quenching pairing for many popular puddings. Crisp, fragrant and full of fruity flavours, Sparkling Moscato (the Italian name for Muscat Blanc) is a great texture contrast with rich Christmas Pudding. We all know this traditional dessert can be incredibly sweet and already quite boozy on its own – especially if you’ve been feeding it with brandy – so a nice chilled glass of light-bodied Moscato is rather refreshing. Try the Tenuta Olim Bauda Moscato d’Asti Centive, which also pairs very nicely with fudge, trifle (a simple, non-alcoholic one) and panettone.
The dried apricot, honey and sweet biscuit flavours of botrytis-affected Sémillon make it a sublime match for many cakes and desserts. If you fancy a small glass of white wine with your Christmas Pudding rather than a glass of sparkling, then this is the way to go. It has a rich and syrupy mouthfeel, making it a more intense pairing with Christmas Pud, so you only want a very small amount in your glass. Nobody does it like the French when it comes to Sémillon-based dessert wines, so look to the subregions of Bordeaux – The Château du Seuil Cerons and Château Gravas Sauternes are both sensational options, and also match wonderfully with creamy desserts like crème brûlée, and apple tarts.
This style of Riesling is just right for light, creamy puddings, fluffy mousses and parfaits. Look out for the term Spätlese if sticking to German Riesling (as this indicates it’s on the lighter end of the sweet Riesling scale), or try something a little different with Belmonte Marlborough Botrytised Riesling. This multi award winning NZ stunner has all the hallmarks of the world’s very best dessert Rieslings. Luscious and honeyed yet crisp, it’s perfectly balanced and a cracking pairing for fruity cheesecakes and soufflés.
Fortified wines are wines that have had a spirit such as brandy added to them to boost alcohol content and overall sweetness. We’re talking Ports, Sherries and other well-known names such as Rutherglen Muscat. Due to their richness and dense body, these Christmas dessert wines are best enjoyed as an after-dinner tipple rather than before you sit down for a big meal.
Expressing deep, rich and complex flavours, these are the wines you want to reach for when it comes to your luxury truffles, yule logs, boozy puddings, mincemeat treats, chocolate tortes… anything rich or chocolately, basically.
When it comes to those luxury after-dinner milk and dark chocolate truffles, port is the ultimate wine to serve. Tawny Port is a lighter style of the famous Portuguese fortified wine, displaying flavours of toffee and caramel, and even its own chocolate notes after a little ageing. This type of Port is best for milk chocolate treats (or sugary chocolate cakes like yule logs) and also fantastic with Christmas Pudding. Deep and juicy Ruby Port, on the other hand, is for your dark chocolates and more bitter desserts. The Fonseca Quinta do Panascal is a Reserve Ruby that’s seen a little ageing, displaying notes of rich plum fruit and sweet spice that would go beautifully with a dark chocolate torte.
For white chocolate, reach for a bottle of Cream Sherry. Velvety smooth with notes of nougat and roasted nuts, it’s a lovely flavour and texture match for white chocolate, as well as creamy desserts like sherry trifle. While, a dark and intensely sweet PX Sherry, such as the multi award-winning Fernando de Castilla Antique Pedro Ximénez, is a fine match for dark chocolate. Its high sugar content and flavours of raisin, sultana and prune make it a great pairing with sticky toffee pudding and mince pies.
Get this one on your shopping list for Christmas if you’ve not tried it before! A fortified Muscat is Christmas in a glass, all on its own. A symphony of raisined fruits and spices linger on the palate, making it a delicious festive treat by itself (although equally quaffable with a mince pie, a slice of Christmas cake or gingerbread biscuits). Try the Yalumba Antique Muscat and you won’t be disappointed.
These are richly sweet dessert wines where the winemaker has achieved a naturally high level of sweetness in the wine by harvesting the grapes at unconventional times (rather than through fortifying). Sweet wine and sweet food pairings can easily be off-key if you don’t get the balance right, so choosing your moment to serve a super sweet wine requires more thought than if you were serving a lighter wine.
As a general rule of thumb, the wine can be slightly sweeter than the dessert (the other way around can make the wine appear to taste bitter) – but, as these wines tend to be at the top of the sweetness scale, they can handle pretty sugary desserts. Think icing sugar, sweet tropical fruit flavours and marzipan.
These are super sweet wines made from grapes that were left to freeze on the vine during the winter months (hence the name). The Weingut Schales Silvaner Eiswein is a fabulous example of German Eiswein and great with Christmas Cake. Expect intense apricot and peach on the nose, accompanied by citrus and apple on the palate. For a Canadian take on it, try the Peller Family Estate Ice Wine Vidal. Notes of apricot and candy floss make it a top choice for tropical fruit desserts like banoffee pie or pineapple cake.
Said to be the world’s oldest sweet wine, Tokaji is Hungary’s most famous export, made from botrytis-infected Aszú grapes. It’s known for being rich and lusciously sweet, and complements almond flavours particularly well. So, pour a glass to sip alongside a slice of traditional German Christmas Stollen or marzipan-coated Christmas Cake. The Château Dereszla Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos is a great one to have in the house for Christmas.
Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese are the sweetest styles of German Riesling you can get made from shrivelled, noble rot affected grapes. Both styles display notes of caramel, making them ideal with caramelised fruit and tropical fruit-flavoured desserts, such as pineapple upside-down cake or tarte tatin. The Hans Lang Hattenheim Hassel Riesling Beerenauslese is a lovely bottle to try – and, like Tokaji, it goes rather nicely with marzipan too. Rich, luscious and honey-like, with aromas of spiced apple strudel, candied apricots and a citrus core, this wine is absolutely divine.
