Cinnamon — flavouring profile

The archetypal warm sweet spice — cinnamaldehyde's woody sweetness bridges savoury tagines and sweet bakes alike, and the wine follows the dish's sugar.

The compounds that matter. The signature is cinnamaldehyde, a warm, sweet, woody-spicy aldehyde. It reads as sweetness even without sugar, so in savoury cooking it wants ripe, spiced fruit to mirror it, and in desserts it wants a wine sweeter than the plate. There is no pungency, only that pervasive warm-sweet lift.

What it demands of a wine. In savoury dishes, a ripe, warm-climate red with its own spice and supple tannin to echo the cinnamon; in sweet dishes, a fortified or late-harvest wine carrying enough sweetness and brown-spice depth to stay ahead of the sugar.

Seek. For tagines and warm-spiced meat, a Grenache-led southern Rhône or GSM mirrors the sweet spice with ripe fruit. For cinnamon desserts, a Tawny Port or a Pedro Ximénez brings caramel-and-spice sweetness that meets the dish head-on.

Avoid. Tannic, herbaceous reds fight the sweetness and turn bitter. Dry, austere wines against a cinnamon dessert taste sour and thin. High alcohol amplifies the warmth into heat.

Three to reach for. A Grenache-led southern Rhône or GSM (Châteauneuf-du-Pape); Tawny Port (Douro); Pedro Ximénez (Jerez).