White peaches and Muscat de Frontignan

Last week we were in the south of France where, bizarrely, it wasn't as hot as it's been in England the past couple of days. One night we went round for supper at a neighbour's who served the simplest and most delicious dessert of white pèches de vigne with chilled Muscat de Frontignan splashed over them.

I imagine the two had been macerated together for a while as you couldn't really tell where the wine ended and the peach juice began but it was absolutely delicious.

The only snag is that it's pretty hard to get peaches that are ripe and juicy enough to pull this trick in the average UK supermarket, Marks and Spencer's possibly apart but you should be able to find them at a decent greengrocer's. Or if you're on holiday in France or Italy - or anywhere else where peaches get properly ripe - do try it there.

Image © Orlando Bellini - Fotolia.com

Scallops and Muscat

A clever combination I had last week at a French restaurant called Larcen.

Putting seafood with a sweet wine might sound a bit odd but there’s a touch of sweetness in scallops anyway and they were also accompanied by a brunoise (tiny dice) of Thai-spiced vegetables which offset the sweetness.

Traditionally dry Muscat is served in that part of France (the Languedoc) as an aperitif so it also harked back to that tradition.

I also like the presentation. The Muscat was served in a small Duralex glass and served with a straw. More Paris than Agde (which is where I was) and really quite cute.

Gooseberry and saffron crème brûlée with a southern French Muscat

Once you get a feel for food and wine matching you don’t always need to taste a wine with a dish to know what will work. So it was with a simple, seasonal dessert I had last week at my favourite local, Culinaria.

It was described as a gooseberry and saffron custard but in fact was more like a crème brûlée with its crunchy sugary topping. The original was apparently conceived by Joyce Molyneux of the Carved Angel at Dartmouth, who has been a big influence on Culinaria’s chef Stephen Markwick.

I wasn’t in the mood for a sweet wine but if I had picked one it would have undoubtedly been a southern French Muscat which goes really well with gooseberries. Cream is a neutral factor in a sweet wine match - it pretty well always works - but the clincher was the addition of saffron which has a slightly bitter note that would have really enhanced the fruitiness of the wine. I almost wish I’d had a glass . . .

Image © Jiri Hera - Fotolia.com

Tiramisu and oxidised sweet wines

This doesn’t, I admit, sound a particularly tempting proposition so let me explain. By oxidised sweet wines I mean dessert wines which have been deliberately exposed to air through extended barrel ageing, giving them a complex nutty, treacley flavour.

The perfect example is a Corsican wine called Rappu from Domaine Gentile I tasted at Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo, the wine bar in Paris I mentioned the other day which provides just the right dried fruit flavours to complement the coffee, cream and chocolate notes of a tiramisu. Other wines that would do a similar job would be a Rivesaltes vieux ambrée or an Italian or Greek Vin Santo.

Tiramisu is in fact a great foil for all kinds of interesting drinks. You could also pair it with an old sweet oloroso sherry, Bual Madeira or Moscatel, a hazelnut flavoured liqueur like Frangelico or a coffee-flavoured one like Kahlua. or simply follow it with an espresso coffee to echo the coffee notes and balance any excess sweetness.