2nd December 2025 | Pairings & Recipes | 8 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 subtly sweet desserts, and save your more densely flavoured drops for the richer food.
Our handy guide covers three categories of dessert wines and how to pair them with the festive season. Let’s tuck in!
The first category we’re covering is the lightest wines for pairing with desserts. We’re talking light to medium-bodied white wines that range from off-dry to delicately sweet. Think Demi-Sec sparkling wines and off-dry whites that are fairly acidic with fresh flavours (so, nothing too heavy or rich 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 fruity puddings, fudge and shortbread.
A glass of bubbly is always welcome at 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) offers a great texture contrast for a stodgy 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 figgy pudding than fizz, 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 to get your fix. The Château du Seuil Cerons and Château Gravas Sauternes are both sensational options, and also match wonderfully with creamy desserts such as crème brûlée and apple tart.
This style of Riesling is fabulous for light puddings such as cheesecakes, mousses, parfaits and soufflés.
Look out for the term Spätlese if sticking to German Riesling (as this indicates it’s on the lighter end of the Riesling sweetness scale), or pick one that’s labelled as off-dry.
The Hiestand Asia de Cuba Riesling NV is a very versatile Riesling that’s slightly sweet but with a citrus kick on the palate that keeps it well balanced and easy to pair with many types of food.
Fortified wines are deeply delicious drops that have had a spirit such as brandy added to them to boost the alcohol content and overall sweetness. We’re talking port, sherry 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 pronounced, complex flavours, these are the wines to crack open with your boozy puddings, yule logs, mincemeat treats, chocolate tortes and truffles… anything flavoursome enough to handle being matched with a powerful wine.
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.
Meanwhile, 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 also 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 raisin, dried fruits and spices linger on the palate, making it a delicious festive treat by itself (although equally quaffable with a slice of Christmas cake or gingerbread biscuits).
Try the Chambers Rosewood Rutherglen Muscat NV and you’ll fall head over heels for this style of wine. Its notes of treacle and raisin on a lush mouthfeel are divine.
The third and final category covers 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).
As a general rule of thumb, the wine can be slightly sweeter than the dessert (the other way round can make the wine appear to taste bitter). However, as these wines tend to be at the top of the sweetness scale, they can handle pretty sugary desserts. Think marzipan, tropical fruit flavours, candied sweets and treats coated in sugar.
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 and other nut flavours particularly well. So, pour a glass to sip alongside a slice of traditional German Christmas stollen, marzipan-coated Christmas cake or an icing sugar-topped mince pie.
The Château Dereszla Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos is a great one to have in the house for Christmas.
These are super sweet wines made from grapes that were left to freeze on the vines 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 such as banoffee pie or pineapple cake, and a great one to sip and savour with candied sweets.
Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese are the sweetest styles of German Riesling you can get, carefully crafted 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. It’s rich, luscious and honey-like with aromas of spiced apple strudel, candied apricots and a citrus core.
