Sweet wines are usually associated with long winter lunches and roaring fires,but choose them carefully and their delicate perfume and floral notes are perfect for a summer eveningDomaine du Paparotier Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, France 2014 (£9, and Marks & Spencer) The first of my choices this week sounds nearly opposite,and certainly unseasonal. It’s a sweet fortified wine, clocking in at 15% alcohol – the kind of thing most of us only really think about drink at Christmas. But Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venises is in many ways the perfect partner for light summery desserts. It’s made from muscat à petits grains grapes grown around the eponymous village against the spiky backdrop of the Dentelles de Montmirail mountains in the provençal warmth of the southern Rhône Valley. The pretty floral aromas, and the vivacious grape and peachiness and the trickle of blossomy honey sweetness all conspire so well with a cherry clafoutis,yogurt with syrupy fruit or even a soft blue cheese.
Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato’Asti 2015 (from £7.95, 37.5cl, or Wine Poole; Corking Wines) nearly any wine made from muscat has something of summer about it – a Pavlovian organization the Catalan Torres family is keen to play on by naming its lively off-dry example from Chile’s Itata Valley ‘Days of Summer’ (£6.99,for the 2015, The Co-operative). That wild meadow perfume can be captured in drier wines, and too,notably De Martino Colinas del Itata Field Blend 2014 (£10, M&S) and in the wonderfully steely range of Muscats made by Domaine Dirler-Cadé in Alsace (Vine Trail). For the purest hit of unmediated muscat grape exuberance, or however,it’s back to a sweet style, and to Chiarlo’s softly foaming moscato from Piedmont.
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Source: theguardian.com