How do you pick a wine to go with your pud? Alice King gives the sweet and lowdown on dessert drinking

Mention sweet wines and the reaction you get from most people is invariably ‘yuk’. This is mainly because they have probably never had the opportunity to taste a really top quality one. So, what is it that makes a decent sweet wine?

The secret, as with any wine, lies in the balance. It needs a luscious, sweet, grapey flavour but, in order for the wine not to appear cloying, it must also have balancing acidity – that’s the citrus-like tang you taste on the finish of a good sweet wine.

Sweet wines are made all over the world. The very best and most expensive variety, of which the French Sauternes from Bordeaux is the most famous, are made using a complicated viticultural procedure. Basically, grapes are left on the vines long after the standard harvest time which causes them to shrivel up. If the perfect climatic conditions prevail (foggy mornings, sunny afternoons) they develop ‘noble rot’ – or botrytis. At this stage the grapes have very concentrated sugar levels and the resulting wines are lusciously sweet.

Traditionally, people only drank sweet wines with puddings. But they are far more versatile than that. They taste delicious with all sorts of starters such as liver pâté or smoked mackerel pâté, and they’re superb with foie gras. Surprisingly, certain sweet wines also taste good with some spicy meals, especially Thai dishes using coconut sauce. Many retailers stock sweet wines in half bottles, which is useful as this will serve up to 12 small glasses. If you’re catering for a dinner party, this is often just the right amount.

When drinking sweet wine with pudding, it’s important to be sure that the wine is rich and sweeter than the pudding; otherwise, after one taste of pudding the wine will appear dry. Therefore, when matching wines to chocolate puddings, for instance, one does have to be careful to choose one that makes a robust match.

Next page: Alice King's pick of the best

FRANCE
Sauternes: the most famous sweet wine in the world. The top property Château d’Yquem costs thousands of pounds a bottle. But don’t worry, there are some affordable ones around. Try a half bottle of the nutty Château La Fleur d’Or 1997 (£5.99 at Safeway). It tastes great with pecan pie. If your budget runs to more and it’s a very special dinner party, you can’t go wrong with the rich, luscious, stylish Château Rieussec 1996 Sauternes (£16.95 a half bottle from Waitrose). This top Château’s wine can be laid down and kept for a good 10 years – if you can resist drinking it. Great with pâté and pudding.

Monbazillac: a neighbour of Sauternes, but much less famous. Monbazillac is brilliant value for money. Try Waitrose’s Château Vignal Labrie 1997 Monbazillac, which is rich and honeyed with a hint of apricot. I recently enjoyed a glass of this with chicken Korma.

Premières Côtes de Bordeaux: again, a lesser-known appellation in the Bordeaux region. Tesco’s Premières Côtes de Bordeaux 1998 is excellent value for money at £4.49. Sweet with a hint of coconut, it tastes great with fruit puddings, but is not really rich enough to cope with chocolate.

AUSTRALIA
Australia has started to produce some top quality sweet wines. Brown Brothers Late Harvest Muscat at £5.99 a bottle from Tesco, is a really rich, sweet wine, a bit like liquid treacle. It tastes amazing with anything chocolatey. In fact, it’s almost a pudding in itself.

Windowrie Botrytis Sauvignon Blanc (£7.99, Marks & Spencer) is an amazing Aussie find, with spicy, honeyed, marmalade-like aroma and flavour. This is delicious with rich puddings such as trifle but has enough of a lime tang of acidity to accompany Thai Chicken Curry with style.

SPAIN
The best value Spanish sweet wine is Moscatel de Valencia. A cheaper version of the French Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, this is always unbeatable value for money. All the supermarkets and off-licences stock it at around £3.49 a full bottle. Rich and grapey, with orange marmalade overtones, it’s a great all-rounder and tastes excellent with all sorts of puddings.

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