How-To: Pair Sweet Wines with Dinner

Sweet wines may be the go-to drink for dessert, or for casual sipping for some people. But they can be a good addition to some meals as well.

The most obvious may be the pairing we talk about fairly regularly: sweet Riesling with spicy food. The thick fruit flavors of a Riesling can calm all but the most severely spicy dish.

Floral, aromatic whites like Gewuztraminer can have sweet flavors. They tend to be lighter wines, but they work well when paired with herbal dishes.

Red wines can pick up the flavor of sweet berries and red fruit. A sublty sweet Pinot Noir can work well with a pork dish. A brighter, more delicate red wine like a Rioja can work well with a cheesey dish.

And the truly sweet wines, like an Ice Wine or Sauternes are typically best as a dessert as they will overwhelm most flavors, but they can work with anything that has enormous funky flavors of its own, basically anything that includes blue cheese.