Sharing sweets with your love on Valentine’s Day is a romantic tradition but finding the perfect wine to compliment those rich desserts and treats is a mystery to many people. BottleCru wants to simplify the process and sweeten your sweetie’s day so you get the compliment!

Sweet wines can be a fantastic dessert by themselves and when pairing with Valentine confections or desserts, they can make delicious partners.  While tastes can vary, we’re sharing some classically successful pairings. If you need some suggestions for a special meal our app can provide that but if you already know what your having here the the best wine suggestions.

California Sparklers and French Champagnes come in a variety of sweetness levels (see chart). The are represented in the BottleCru app by Classic Sparklers. The ones to focus on here are labeled extra-dry, sec, demi-sec or doux. In the Sweet Eve Style in the app! These sweeter sparklers are fruiter, not quite as bubbly, crisp or complex as the other sparklers but are very delightful in their dessert or sweet food paring roles.  They are usually somewhat less expensive and often come in half-bottle sizes which are perfect for desserts courses when you may not want more than a glass at the end of the meal  They are almost all light to medium in alcohol (alcohol by volume or abv) of 12%-13.5%.

The best sweet food parings for these sparklers are fruit-based desserts (Citrus, Tropical or Berry, Tree or Stone), lighter yogurt, mousse or white chocolate.

For an adventurous delicious pairing with semi-sweet chocolates, try a sparkling Rosé wine or Rose Eve in the app.

Asti Spumante is a semi-sweet, highly effervescent (spumante means “foaming” in Italian), light (7%-9% abv) sparkling wine made in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy around the town of Asti. Its less bubbly (fizzy or “frizzante”), sweeter, lower alcohol (5.5% max.) and more prestigious cousin is Moscato d’Asti. (Who knows more about love than Italians?) Both are made with the Muscato grape with flavors of ripe peach, apricot, tangerine and lychee nut and both pair deliciously with fruit-based desserts.

Fun Fact: Muscato or white Muscat is thought to be the oldest grape varietal known to man.

You can find great examples to try by going to Recommended Wines the app and

ENJOY!

“Fortified” wine is made by adding distilled wine spirits (Brandy) during or just after fermentation completes. Some which pair best with sweets are Port, sweet Sherry, Madeira, and Port-style wines from California and Australia.

Fortified wine alcohol levels range from 15-22% but when they are well made, they don’t taste “hot” or excessively alcoholic. They are all very rich, full bodied and offer intense tasting experiences.

Dark color (Port style) fortified wines are the perfect match for chocolate, coffee and caramel-based desserts. Light color ones pair great with milk chocolate, crème brulee and crème caramel.

True Ports are a product of Portugal. They are a delicious blend of usually five native red grapes and are a fantastic match for chocolate. But selecting one can be confusing because there are so many types to choose from (wood aged, bottle aged, young, aged, etc.) Try a Late bottled Vintage Port (LBV). It’s a great tasting wine, somewhat less expensive and an open bottle will last a long time, (assuming you don’t finish it in one sitting). However, if you want to splurge decant a true Vintage Port for maximum full richness and complexity Port can offer, and consume the bottle

Sherries are Spanish and range from very dry to sweet. The ones which pair best with desserts are sweeter Olorosos & Cream Sherries (light color).

Port -style or “Tokay” wines from CA or Australia are yum with “darker” desserts as well!

The cardinal rule of pairing sweet wine with food is that the wine must be as sweet as or sweeter than the food or it will taste sour and unappealing. The chart below shows our suggested wines, their origin and for some their [grapes] and some suggested dessert pairings.