WBW #66: Your Tenderest Two-Some, Dessert & Wine

Argyle Brut Rosé (2007)
Argyle Winery
52% Pinot Meunier | 48% Pinot Noir
Dundee Hills, OR

So today is Wine Blogging Wednesday #66 which is being hosted by Jennifer Hamilton, The Domestic Goddess. Combining two of my favorite things, Jennifer has joined WBW with Sugar-High Friday for today's challenge. We were asked to come up with a dessert and wine pairing.

Desserts can sometimes be difficult to pair with wines, and I think many of us first just jump to sweeter wines. Rule of thumb there is to make sure your wine is as sweet of not sweeter than your dessert, otherwise it'll taste sour. Also keep in mind tangy/tart flavors vs. savory/milky ones in your desserts. Based on that (is it apple pie or chocolate mousse?) you'll want to pay attention to the wine's acidity.

Since I tend to gravitate towards more acidic wines, and away from overly-chocolate'd (I know, there's not supposed to be such a thing... just think, more chocolate for you!) desserts my thoughts got a little bubbly. Lucky for us, Argyle is less than 30 minutes from here!

Appearance: Clear, bright, soft to medium intensity salmon pink color

Nose: Clean with lots of bright, fresh fruit including fresh apple, cherry, strawberry, citrus and tropical fruit; softened by a very subtle yeast aroma; some minerality

Palate: Very crisp, dry, medium+ acidity, medium body and finish, tons of bubbles and a vigorous mousse; mimicking the fruitiness from the nose, lots of cherry, fresh picked apples, strawberry and citrus

So the dessert then? Homemade pineapple galette! My housemate Amy crafted a beautifully rustic tart using fresh pineapple, cinnamon, and an obscenely butter-laden crust recipe. Wow.

The wine was amazing with this - the acidity matched with the tartness of the pineapple, but also helped with the buttery crust. The bubbles scrubbed that fatty texture off the palate and prepped the tongue for the next bite. I kept thinking, getting slightly light-headed on the bubbles, that this was the ultimate pairing of Tropical Meets Rural. Warm weather fruit paired with fresh, crisp apples. Perfect.

To make matters... worse?... we broke out a jar of Lynnette's freshly-made strawberry basil preserves to see how that would taste on the galette. Um - *expletive* fantastic. It's unfortunate we didn't think of it sooner!

So, when it comes time for dessert what wine are you thinking of? Maybe just an ice-wine or Port on it's own or something paired with dark chocolate cake? Comment with your favorite combo!

Cheers!