Food pairings for Apothic and other sweet red wines

Heavily promoted Apothic is just one of a range of sweeter red wines that have been launched on the market recently. Not having much of a sweet tooth, I must confess it’s not particularly to my taste but I can see that it would greatly appeal to wine drinkers who find drier reds unappealing.

It also, I think, has interesting food pairing possibilities. You could treat it much like a port, say, and match it with chocolate or blue cheese. IF you like blue cheese that is. Food and wine pairings are all about combining things you enjoy.

So let’s look at possible food matches depending whether you like sweet reds or not.

If you like ‘em

You’ll probably want to match it with your favourite foods. It could handle a level of sweetness in a sauce or marinade that might make drier reds taste thin and weedy. So barbequed ribs or chicken wings in a sweet sticky marinade should be bang on. As should hamburgers, steak, lamb and meat-topped pizzas. No reason why you shouldn’t pair them with the Thanksgiving turkey and I reckon they would go well with Chinese meat dishes such as Peking duck.

You might also want to drink them with chocolate cake - one similar red was referred to as Cupcake Red - or chocolate desserts. And they should work well with a cheeseboard.

If you generally like drier reds

Try Apothic with blue cheeses like Stilton and a plum compote or roast figs or with dark chocolate desserts, cakes or brownies.

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