Dessert wines for fresh summer berries?

WINE TALK
1

Our local farm stands are starting to have ripe summer berries – strawberries in particular.

Perfect chilled on these hot Western evenings.

What’s dessert wines are a good pair with them?

2

Moscato d’Asti.

3

Michael’s suggestion is good, I think; pairing with anything too sweet might make even ripe berries seem very tart.

Is May wine with strawberries still popular in Germany?

4

Piling on with the Moscato d’Asti rec. Bringing it all together would be a citrus zabaglione spooned atop the berries.

5

Huet Clos du Bourg or Le Haut Lieu demi-sec or moelleux Vouvray. The 2009 has a little too much tart apricot, but the 2008 LHL moelleux has the right balance of residual sugar and fruit flavors to go nicely with berries.

6

A good acidity driven older tawny/Colheita well chilled would pair great.

7

Mosel Spätlese can be fun. We had a 2003 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese with strawberries the other day and it was lovely. Not so overwhelmingly sweet as dessert wines proper.

8

Anything from the Mosel.

9

Just served a Kracher Chardonnay Trockenbeerenauslese the other night that worked beautifully.

RT

10

Auslese, Moscato d’Asti, off-dry bubbles of various species, Vin Santo, Fino.

11

Save that for the biscotti. [cheers.gif]

12

Lots of good suggestions. Also, consider some rose’s.

13

some rose’s what?

[snort.gif]

14

Don’t let Rose know you’re drinking her wine. She’ll get pissed! [shock.gif] In particular, make sure you stay away from Rose’s rosés.

15

Went to the nearby “pick your own” organic strawberry farm on Saturday. I drank my last 1990 Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg Auslese while preparing them for the freezer. It was a heavenly pairing!

16

Also going with Mosel. I recently had friends over and served strawberries on pound cake with fresh whipped creme and served with 2010 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Spatlese, which was also served with a duck terrine. All went beautifully. There was just the right amount of acidity from the Spatlese to handle the strawberries.

17

As an alternative to Moscato, Brachetto (d’Acqui). Similar style but perhaps a bit better with red fruit?

18

I think Ian is right on! [cheers.gif]

I really like Brachetto d’Aqui with summer pudding, which is basically a berry bread pudding that uses mostly fresh and some slightly sugared and lightly cooked berries. I’ve had it with Moscato which is nice, but I think that wine might favor more the orchard fruits. Brachetto, on the other hand, really highlights those red fruitbowl flavors.

19

Apropros MdA, we had a wonderful amuse at L’Etoile the other night that was strawberries macerated in Moscato d’Asti with a little blue cheese and a mini biscuit. Divine.

A.

20

I tried an 01 Auslese from some other Prum I didn’t recognize (W-S vineyard though) with a bowl of berries tonight.

As posters suggested it went well together. Hot night, cold auslese and berries. Neither are overly sweet and the brightness goes well together.

These unfortunately were supermarket berries, so not as ripe as the farmstand ones. Some jackass burned down the farmstand we’ve been going to for 41 years. I’m not kidding. Arsonists burning up a little shack. Vandals have hit it a few times this spring/summer, so perhaps there is more to the story than the newspaper suggests.