Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
How to Choose Dessert Wines. A dessert wine makes a great meal even better. Follow these
tips to top off your menu with flair. You will need A variety of desserts and a supply
of dessert wines. Step 1. Learn the different types of dessert wines, including fortified
wines, such as port and sherry, and late harvest wines, made from mature, sweet grapes. Step
2. Decide what to serve for dessert and choose a wine to complement it. Cake or cookies,
fruit and cheese, and chocolate are good choices. Complement the meal. Follow a heavy meal with
a lighter dessert. Save rich desserts to follow lighter meals. Step 3. Serve port, a red wine
fortified with brandy, with rich desserts. Pair lighter ruby ports with fruit pies, tawny
ports with milk chocolate, and vintage ports with dark chocolate. Step 4. Drink Muscat
wine with fruit. Muscat grapes produce a sweet, light, fruity wine. Dessert wine should be
sweeter than whatever you serve with it. Step 5. Indulge in a bottle of Sauternes, a wine
made from grapes infected by "noble rot," a fungus that concentrates their sugars. Serve
with fruit and Roquefort cheese. Step 6. Serve very sweet dessert wines, such as ice wine
or German Ausele, on their own. These are a dessert in themselves! Did you know French
law permits Sauternes production only in the Sauternes region of Bordeaux.