White Wines and Desserts

With a sweet dessert, choose a white wine at least as sweet as the dish: next to a sweeter dessert, the wine tastes thin and sour. Acidity keeps the pairing light, especially with a rich dessert. Under EU rules, a medium sweet wine contains 12 to 45 grams of sugar per liter, and a sweet wine more than that.

Tart or Cooked Fruit: Look for Bright Acidity

Desserts built on tart fruit, such as lemon tart, citrus salad or red berries, call for a medium sweet or sweet white that keeps its tension. Chenin Blanc from the Coteaux du Layon and the Manseng grapes of Jurançon combine sweetness with zing. A wine that is only sweet, with no acidity, would feel heavy next to them.

With cooked stone fruit or orchard fruit, such as apple or apricot tart or poached pears, try an Alsace Vendanges Tardives white. Made from Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Riesling or Muscat picked overripe, it brings ripe fruit and often spice notes.

Custards and Pastries: Time for a Sweet White

Crème brûlée, flan, caramel tart or frangipane: these rich desserts pair with a sweet white, often marked by honey, dried apricot or candied fruit.

Sauternes, Loupiac and Monbazillac are classic examples; Sauternes rules require at least 45 grams of sugar per liter. To tell the two styles apart, read our article on the difference between medium sweet and sweet wines.

With white chocolate, very sweet and with no bitterness, try a Muscat vin doux naturel, such as Muscat de Rivesaltes or Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise. Mutage, adding grape spirit during fermentation, keeps part of the grape's sugar and aroma in these wines.

Serving a White Dessert Wine: Temperature and Pour Size

Serve sweet and medium sweet whites chilled, around 46 to 50°F (8 to 10°C): the cold tempers the sense of sugar. A dry white or an aromatic late-harvest wine can be a little warmer, about 50 to 54°F (10 to 12°C). Take the bottle out of the fridge a few minutes before dessert.

A medium-size white wine glass is all you need, and pours stay small, about 60 to 80 ml (2 to 2.7 oz) per person. A 500 ml bottle, a common size for sweet wines, pours six to eight glasses; a 750 ml bottle, about ten.

If the meal includes several wines, save the medium sweet or sweet white for last: poured before a dry wine, it would make it taste austere. A sweet white opened for foie gras as a starter can also come back with dessert, so one bottle covers two courses.

White Wine with Dessert: Practical Questions

What dessert goes with a dry white wine?

With a dry white wine, serve a dessert that isn't very sweet, such as a thin apple tart, citrus salad, fresh fruit or plain cookies. A rich, sugary dessert would make the wine taste sour and bitter, while a dry Riesling or Chenin Blanc stays fresh next to fruit.

What white wine goes with sorbet or ice cream?

With sorbet or ice cream, serve a medium sweet or sweet aromatic white wine with enough acidity to wake up a palate numbed by the cold. Try a Muscat vin doux naturel with vanilla ice cream, or a late-harvest wine with a stone fruit sorbet.

What white wine goes with a tropical fruit dessert?

With a tropical fruit dessert, serve a highly aromatic medium sweet or sweet white wine whose aromas echo mango or pineapple. With fresh fruit, try a medium sweet Vouvray or a Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh. For roasted pineapple or bananas Foster, which are more caramelized, choose a sweet Loire Chenin Blanc such as Bonnezeaux.

Where can you buy white dessert wine direct from the winemaker?

You can buy white dessert wine direct from the winemaker on Avenue des Vins. The wine comes to you directly from the producer who made it.

See also: Rosé wines and desserts - Sparkling and desserts - Sweet white wines