Tiramisu

Tiramisu

Tiramisu stacks sweet mascarpone, bitter coffee and dusted cocoa, so the wine has to be at least as sweet as the pudding and carry its own coffee or cocoa depth to meet the bitterness. A sweet, concentrated or fortified wine is the answer. Avoid dry wines, which taste harsh against the sugar and cocoa.

Pairs Perfectly

A sweet Marsala, Sicily, Italy. Caramel, walnut and a coffee-like depth make Sicily's fortified classic a natural with the dish, and it often goes into the recipe itself.

Pairs Well

A Pedro Ximénez Sherry, Jerez, Spain. Treacle-dark, all raisin, coffee and molasses, it mirrors the cocoa and coffee head-on.

A Maury or Banyuls, Roussillon, France. Grenache fortified into a cocoa-and-red-fruit register meets the chocolate beautifully.

Avoid

Dry wines of any kind, which turn bitter and sour against the cocoa.

Failing That

A Mavrodaphne of Patras, Greece.

If All Else Fails

Tawny Port, Portugal.

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