Salted caramel dessert

Salted caramel dessert

Assuming a salted caramel tart, pot or ice cream, sometimes with dark chocolate.

Salted caramel is intensely sweet, buttery and salty, so the wine must be at least as sweet, with a caramel, toffee or nutty character of its own. A dry wine tastes thin and sour beside it. The salt helps, sharpening a sweet wine and making it seem fresher.

Pairs Perfectly. Botrytis Semillon, Riverina, Australia. Marmalade, honey and caramel from grapes shrivelled by noble rot, sweet enough for the pudding and fresh enough to carry the butter. It is often sold in half bottles and is modest in price.

Pairs Well. Madeira in its richer Bual or Malmsey style, Portugal. Toffee, burnt sugar and walnut on a searing acid line that cuts the butter and welcomes the salt.

Pairs Well. Rutherglen Muscat, Victoria, Australia. Dark toffee, raisin and coffee, very sweet and very rich, for the darkest caramel and chocolate versions.

Worth Seeking Out

Commandaria from Cyprus. One of the oldest named wines in the world, made from sun dried grapes, with caramel, fig and spice that sit right on a salted caramel tart.

Avoid

Dry wines of any kind, and light, delicate sweet wines. A dry wine turns sour and thin, and a light Moscato is simply swamped.

Failing That

A Tawny Port, Douro, Portugal.

If All Else Fails

Cream Sherry, Jerez.

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