food/sweet wine

[scott ram]

i need some suggestions on food with sweet wines, also some favorite popular sweet wines.

[Innkeeper]

Hi Scott, and welcome to the Wine Board. Generally sweet foods go with sweet wine. This can include entrees as well as desserts. Ham with sweet glazes or fruits, duck a l'orange, and other sweet entrees will go with sweet wines.

Sweet wines are mostly white such as many of the rieslings, muscats, chenin blancs, and others. Sweet red wine is a little harder to come up with. The easiest to find are the Italian Lambruscos.

[tandkvd]

IK, I have been reading in The Wine Report for Atlanta, Birmingham & Charlotte, about Port Wines. The artical made it sound like these are red wines and that they actualy go good with many chocolate deserts.
In my quest to find a wine my wife likes, I am planning to pick up a Riesling and a Port wine this week for Valentines Day. We both have a weakness for chocolate. Any sugestions?

I have also wrote down in my Palm Pilot your sugestion of the Alpha Domus Chardonnay. I'll be looking for that as well, thanks.

[This message has been edited by tandkvd (edited 02-09-2003).]

[Innkeeper]

Port makes an excellent dessert with chocolate or by itself. Would look for Tawny or Ruby from Portugal itself. You have some big Australian Port fans in your region, so look at them second.

The riesling you get depends a lot on what you are having for your entree. If you are having something heavy such as pork chops, you want an off dry one such as a German Kabinett or Spatlese. If you are having a white fish, look for a dry one from the U.S. (will say "dry" on the label), Germany (will say "troken" on the label), or an entry level one from Alsace.

The Alpha Domus Chardonnay will go with all the above except the chocolate.

[wondersofwine]

As for the original question about favorite sweet wines--I like a German Riesling such as Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese or Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese. Some of the 2001 German spatlese wines have about the same sweetness as an auslese wine in other years. Kurt Darting makes some nice sweet German wines from riesling and other grape varieties as does Muller-Catoir. Port (my favorites are the tawny ports which are aged longer in wood) does go nicely with chocolate desserts. Also with Stilton cheese and walnuts or pecans.
A pear or apple tart goes nicely with an off-dry riesling. Orange-flavored desserts such as an orange souffle might go nicely with orange muscat. Creme brulee (caramelized) might go nicely with a German Riesling Beerenauslese or French Sauternes (both expensive dessert wines).

[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 02-10-2003).]