One of the best desserts is dessert wine. A good dessert wine can stand alone as a delightful treat for those who require their sugary ending. In fact, most dessert wines are poor partners to sweet dessert dishes because the intense acidity of most dessert wines will fight with the desserts. One dessert wine, Sauterne, and its cousins Barsac and Loupiac, have a place right next to country paté--here it is the age-old combination of fat with acid, but the sweetness of the wine and the strength of the paté make for a delightful mouthful.
Not exactly dessert wines, but suited as desserts on their own, some fortified wines pair with some sweet desserts--these are the wines of Madeira. Madeira Bual is perfect for pecan or pumpkin pie. Likewise, Madeira Malmsey makes for a great syrup over ice cream. Madeira Verdelho with nuts at the end of a meal is a fine sweet/tangy dessert.
And then there is wine with chocolate. In our opinion, it isn't that red wine does not pair well with chocolate, it is that the wines that do best are not only of the Cabernet family; Shiraz/Syrah, Zinfandel/Primitivo, and some Madeira wines are fine matches for deep, rich chocolate. Often, the chocolate subdues these intense wines and brings out the many berry-like qualities hidden underneath, and many of us like berries with chocolate. The truly adventuresome might look into pairing a good sparkling wine (extra dry) with white chocolate! One of the greatest wine and chocolate pairings is with a wine produced in the southern regions of France; it is called Banyuls.
A great place to get chocolate is (forthcoming)...
