What Order to Serve these Dessert Wines?

[Jim_Stewart]

I wouldn’t serve anything sweeter than fresh fruit with any of these wines. Pretzels, salted nuts, etc. Sweet plus sweet plus sweet equals way too sweet, to the extent that none of it is really appealing. I think the idea of pairing sweet wines with desserts in general is one of the great fallacies of the “accepted wisdom” of the wine world. Dessert wine is dessert; it doesn’t go with dessert. That’s especially true when talking about multiple dessert wines.

Good advice here, I think . . . .

[J_Rock]

I wouldn’t serve anything sweeter than fresh fruit with any of these wines. Pretzels, salted nuts, etc. Sweet plus sweet plus sweet equals way too sweet, to the extent that none of it is really appealing. I think the idea of pairing sweet wines with desserts in general is one of the great fallacies of the “accepted wisdom” of the wine world. Dessert wine is dessert; it doesn’t go with dessert. That’s especially true when talking about multiple dessert wines.

Honestly, this is the practice that I usually follow (sweet with savory, salty, spicy, etc.), which mirrors a large philosophy behind my cooking as well, as I think contrast/juxtaposition really makes food (and wine) exciting. However, I keep hearing about pairing dessert wine with sweet desserts (e.g., creme brulee, pie, etc.), so I figured maybe I’m missing something or should at least give it a try.

[DougS]

You’re missing nothing other than not enjoying the dessert or the wine as much as you would with either on its own. Seriously. It never works as well as people want it to.

[J_Rock]

For me, a fortified wine after a non-fortified dessert wine always tastes clumsy and overbearing. So long ago I swore I would never have the two together. I used to open aszu wines and a friend would insist on bringing fortified wines and it’s like listening to Mozart and having someone come in playing heavy metal. So it’s not like one will be underwhelming as much as awkward.

You really nailed it with this analogy. We served the Eiswein first (of the dessert wines). It was very intense and heavy, but still elegant and miraculously lively and pure (and just all around exceptional). The Close Solene followed and was still great (and it’s not very heavily fortified at 15.6%), but it was definitely lighter and probably didn’t have quite the impact it would’ve if served first. The Tawnys are last and while very good, definitely seemed especially strong, but in fairly lumbering/clumsy manner, at least compared to how they are when served on their own.

In the future, I think the Eiswein would be fine after the Clos Solene, but the Tawny’s just don’t really fit that well, although, people were very excited to have them.

Also, while it was really interesting to see how the EW seemingly changed when paired with pie, aged parmesan, etc. it really is a wine the deserves to be savored alone and contemplated.

Also, FYI, we had 7 different wines in total, and 5/6 people voted the Molitor EW as wine of the night (and pretty much everyone was blown away by it) and 1 person voted the Clos Solene Sweet Clementine as their wine of the night (although, she had it after the EW, so I’m not sure if she realizes just how sweet it is)

[Tran_Bronstein]

John is, as usual, correct.

May I have your permission to add that to my signature?

This is as good as if not better than Miek Grammer gifting me with “Tran’s the smart one!”. You know, except for that whole unintentional aspect of it followed by the immediate regret!