What’s the best wine to pair with lemon tart (aka tarte au citron)?

The classic tarte au citron is tricky with wine, particularly if it’s home made. And the sharper and more lemony (and delicious) it is, the harder it is to find a good match.

Basically what they tend to do is wipe the citrus flavours - and the sweetness - out of any accompanying dessert wine leaving them tasting thin and sharp. The only really successful match I’ve found is a sweet wine that has a lot of acidity like a German beerenauslese Riesling or other very sweet late harvest Riesling served really cold. (Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein or icewine could also work for you but I find they bump up the sweetness too much.

I also had success with a beerenauslese Chardonnay from Austria which was a bit of a surprise. Sweet chardonnay wouldn’t have occurred to me if I hadn’t tried it.

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