06/26/08 Sweet Wine With Food

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today is food and wine pairing day and we're talking about a few traditional foods to serve with sweet wine. Recently I taught wine classes at Vintage Walla Walla, an event you should look for next year, and by the end of the classes even diehard red wine drinkers were stopping me and saying how much they enjoyed being enlightened to Riesling and food. In the Cheese course we realized white wine seemed to have a particular affinity to cheese - one of the classic combinations being bleu cheese and sweet white wine, we served Riesling. To begin with a quality sweet white wine is simply too good to be served only as or with dessert. It will truly show its personality when it accompanies a savory food such as pate' or grilled foie gras. However, to me, and many prominent food writers, one of the finest foods with a beautiful Sauterne, German Riesling or Port is blue cheese. A sweet white wine definitely shows all its best when accompanied by blue cheeses. Regional combinations such as Roquefort with Sauterne are quite a treat. And this is not to say that blue cheese can't be incorporated into the dessert, try a recipe for a Bleu Cheese bread pudding. Top it with warm pear butter and served it with a late harvest Riesling as dessert. The blue cheese and the Riesling absolutely make the dish; your guests will be most impressed! Instead of dessert, it is simple to serve blue cheeses with roasted nuts and dried fruit, along with your sweet white wine. So try it out and see what you think of sweet white wine and blue cheese. And thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.