Does this question intrigue you? Wine is naughty when paired with sweets, especially the ones that have dark chocolate in them. Finding the perfect dessert and wine combination can be hard, as you don’t need a bitter wine but a sweet wine may overwhelm the palette. Keep reading for some help with this, and most importantly to find out what wine goes with brownies.
We suggest sticking to dry and dark wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot when picking a wine to go with brownies. Dry red wines will help accentuate the chocolate flavors of the brownies and stand up to their sweetness.
Let’s talk about dessert wines a little bit, and then we will find the perfect wine for brownies.
A Guide to Dessert Wines
When people talk about wine, the first thing that comes to mind is cheese and meat-based dishes. But the wine profile is so large that any food can be combined with a bottle. The hard part of wine combination is doing it right. Our blog is here to help you with that!
There is no specific definition for dessert wines. Very often, dessert wines are considered to be all kinds of sweet wines. Naturally, sweet wine must be made from very sugary grapes.
But as all winemakers make alcohol by fermentation of sugar, the process is stopped before the yeast turns all the sugar in grapes into alcohol. There are some ways to stop the fermentation process. For example, you can cool it down, or add some brandy to it. With those methods, you will have a rich wine sweetened with natural sugars.
There are five general types of dessert wines, and the rest of the classes branch out of those. They are Lightly-Sweet Dessert Wine, Richly Sweet Dessert Wine, Sweet Red Wine, Fortified Wine, and Sparkling Dessert Wine. There is no need to go deep into all types and tell you about that, as that isn’t our topic for today.
Author Note: The wine is “extra” for any dinner or meal, as it strengthens the taste of food. And that’s why sweet wines are mostly drunk with dessert meals to make them even more lovable. Some common dessert wines are ice wine, port from Portugal, and Madeira.
Now, let’s get into some combinations, and then we will go back to our question of what wine goes with brownies and provide you with a satisfying answer.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
You have probably noticed that our blog’s favorite wine is Pinot Noir. Here we are again with it, and besides all the other main meal combinations, you should try warm oatmeal raisin cookies with this delightful wine. No regrets are guaranteed!
Vanilla Cake
How can we ignore cake, especially when it comes to the lady Chardonnay? A vanilla cake is light and straightforward, and that’s why it is a perfect match with the traditional Chardonnay. White with white, it even sounds right!
Red Velvet Cake
Red velvet cake with red velvet wine! This rich, creamy, soft, and delicate cake goes well with Red Velvet wine to complete the tases’ palette. Red Velvet is usually made from Merlot grapes and tastes sweet as well!
Cheesecake
The creaminess of the cheesecake makes it challenging to pair with many wines. But the solution is found in Riesling’s fruity and light texture, which complements the more in-depth notes in the cake.
Tiramisu
Coffee, cream cheese, and lady’s fingers. These make for a popular and well-loved combination for a party, and you cannot celebrate something without sparkling wine! Champagne is the answer. Let’s unite Italy with France at the dinner table.
Pumpkin Pie
You didn’t think that I forgot about the traditions, did you? Pumpkin pie means a family gathering. If grandma made one and called you to visit her, grab a Serry with you, it goes perfectly with it.
So, now it’s time for the million-dollar question! What wine goes with brownies?
What Wine Goes with Brownies?
We all know how real brownie tastes: it’s chocolaty, soft, and dark. The cocoa and the dark chocolate in its compound make it rich in taste, and you cannot have two slices at once. Vanilla ice cream is added on top to mitigate its flavor a little bit. The pastry chefs recommend milk with it, weak tea, and Americano from coffee. Interestingly, coffee with milk is not allowed with brownies.
Author Note: You may now think that it’s all clear, we are going to buy the sweetest wine in the world to make the brownie a bit easy. But sadly it isn’t that. Nothing beats an excellent dry red wine when it comes to chocolatey brownies. These desserts find their perfect match when paired with a bottle of dark red wine.
Among robust reds, Cabernet Sauvignon is recommended to pair with chocolate. These flavors really even each other out and go well together on the tongue. Now, let’s dive deeper into these wines, and just what makes them so special.
Chocolate Details
Cocoa is responsible for the bitterness in all chocolate. The majority of dessert wines have high acidity to prevent them from being overly sentimental. Still, cocoa’s bitterness clashes with this balancing acidity and can create exaggerated, bitter, sour flavors.
Those pairings are for actual gourmands as not everyone is willing to taste the bittersweet combinations. The wines I have chosen for you will bring out the hidden flavors of brownie and vice versa. The dark taste of chocolate brownies will emphasize the notes of wines.
Grenache
Grenache is a wine grape variety that is the ultimate team player. This is not the strongest, but with it, any blend is sure to be a winner. It has very fruity aromas and goes perfectly with chocolate cakes; in our case, brownies and it also gets rid of the need for toppings.
Malbec
Thanks to Argentina, this wine became very popular in the last fifteen years, but it’s originally from the south-west of France, more specifically the region Cahors. It has aromas of black cherry, blueberry, and plum.
It can also sometimes include cedar, leather, smoke, and licorice. They taste of high acidity and medium sweetness, which will be great to have with dark brownies.
Shiraz
These grapes are the most planted in the world. Syrah or Shiraz (this spelling comes from Persian) is a grape sort from Iran. The legend says that this winegrape was brought to Rhône valley in France during the middle ages, though some historians question it.
Anyway, now it is largely being produced in Australia and America. They have aromas of plum and yet taste like any dark-colored berries. It is highly recommended to pair with bittersweet chocolate mixtures.
Cabernet Sauvignon
We talked about other wine varieties, but our first choice with brownie should be Cabernet Sauvignon.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the offspring of two grapes that are also well-known, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. Two of those at some point in time created what we know as a rich, full-body, dry red wine. Cabernet Sauvignon is a thick-skinned red grape.
It prefers longer growing seasons and warmer climates. Traditionally coming from the Bureaux region in France, it’s a grape with a lower acidity that tends to produce wine with a higher tannin structure.
Cabernet Sauvignon’s aromatics are black currant, black raspberry (not the same as blackberry), and black cherry. The wine often has some earthy aromatics as well, with leathery notes that round out its flavor. And often with Cabernets, especially those which grow in France, you can also smell scents like nutmeg, cinnamon, and other baking spices. This has to do with the oak that is used while aging the wine.
Author Note: The taste initially is very much about the tactile sensation; tannin is what you experience, especially when Cabernet is young. It’s the feeling that makes your lips kind of stick to your teeth․ Speaking of the actual taste, Cabernet Sauvignon mirrors all the fruit flavors that its aroma contains.
When it comes to food pairing, you know from the other articles in our blog that the wines with high tannin go perfectly with the meat. So anything meaty is excellent with Cabernet Sauvignon.
Why Do Brownies Work?
So, why is this wine served with brownies as the perfect match?
First of all, it has a very balanced taste of sweetness than the other above mentioned ones. The chocolate you pair with, or the cake shouldn’t be sweeter than the wine. We cannot trust the brownie’s sweetness, so we choose Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany it to bring out the hidden taste notes.
The fruity tones are just perfect with brownies, so the rich flavor of this wine’s berries and fruits makes it even better. You could serve brownies without vanilla ice-cream or any other cake toppings if you bring out the Cabernet Sauvignon. It has all you need: fruit taste and cake spices. This wine will really bring out what the baked cocoa could have been hiding.
Conclusion
Every person is different, so tastes differ as well. This means that not everything in this article will be to your tastes, so remember to experiment! You can follow the rules, or you can mix them up and create your own recipes in the kitchen.
No one really knows if a combination is good until they try it on their own. Maybe there is a secret pairing no one has found that makes for the best dessert parties. The most important thing is to respect and cherish your wine. Long live the wine!
To living a full-bodied life,
Wesley